


Force Works

by Dan_Ingram



Category: Marvel (Comics)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-24 09:28:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 29,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19170475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dan_Ingram/pseuds/Dan_Ingram
Summary: A team of young superhumans and mutants come together to improve human/mutant relations, and change the world for the better!





	1. Chapter 1

Strange Alliances

 

 

# Salem Center, Westchester County, Several weeks ago

 

Danielle Moonstar tapped lightly on the door to the study. She was expected, but she didn’t want to interrupt any important business, nonetheless.

 

“ Come in, Dani.”

 

As Dani entered the study, she still couldn’t quite get used to the sight of Scott Summers, leader of the X-Men, setting behind Professor Xavier’s desk. The sight was…off, for lack of a better description.  It wasn’t as though she felt he didn’t deserve it. He was the first X-Man and all, but to Dani, it just felt wrong for anyone other than the Professor to be sitting there. She put that out of her mind, and got down to business.

 

“ You wanted to see me, Mr. Summers?”

 

“ Please, call me Scott,” He said, “ I’ll get right to the point, Dani. Recently, I was contacted by an old associate of the Professor’s named Donald Parvenue. He informed me that he was creating a superhuman team to…ahem… fight for human/mutant co-existence and he wanted to know if I had any suggestions for recruits.”

 

“ How on earth did he know to call here?”

 

“ Mr. Parvenue is…was a confident of the professor’s. According to the professor’s files, Mr. Parvenue secretly contributed millions to the M.U.S.E.*, though he never took much of an active part in it. I guess he called us looking for a little repayment.”

 

(Mutant Underground Support Engine. An under ground rail road for mutants set up by Professor X)

 

“That’s all swell, but I hope you didn’t volunteer me without consulting me first.” Dani said with a raised eyebrow.

 

“ Of course not. But I did tell him that I told him I would get back to him.”

 

“ So what does this have to do with me?”

 

“ When he asked me for suggestions, he implied that he wanted someone with…‘credibility’.”

 

“ You mean someone whom the media hasn’t yet had the chance to label an outlaw, like most of X-Force and X-Men.”

 

“ Correct. I think that you’re the perfect candidate, given your work as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D and the fact that you really haven’t been seen with the X-Men in public.” 

 

“ That doesn’t answer my question, what does this have to do with me? I’m sure there are plenty of other mutants out there to chose from.”

 

“ Given the…delicate state of human/mutant relations, I don’t think it would be a wise idea for us to have some loose cannons out there pretending to represent humans and mutants whom we know nothing about.”

 

“ And you want me to spy on them?” Dani asked, somewhat surprised.

 

“ No, no nothing of the sort, Dani. I simply don’t want to be caught flat footed. What I would simply like you to do is meet Parvenue and evaluate his team. Whether you join or not is up to you. But I would like to know what to expect when his team debuts.”

 

Dani took a moment to take it all in. A team of human and mutant heroes seemed like a good idea, but did these heroes know what reaction to expect from the media and authorities? Unlikely.  And the idea that it could be a trap wasn’t far from Dani’s mind. But all in all, the idea did hold some promise.

 

“Call Mr. Parvenue back, Scott. Tell him I’ll meet with him.” Dani said, “ And tell him I’ll be bringing a friend.”

 

Dani turned to leave, but stopped for a moment.

 

“ Scott? One more question.”

 

“ Yes?”

 

“ Just out of curiosity, what does Mr. Parvenue plan to call his little pet team? X-Factor, X-Statics, X-Squad, X-Corps, what?”

 

“The team’s called Force Works.”

 

***

 

Several miles above Metro City, an island city on the east coast, Present Day

 

“ Dani, I simply dinnae understand why yuir wearing that hateful costume.” Rahne Sinclair, also known as the mutant heroine, Wolfsbane muttered.

 

“ Because I need something to protect my identity.” Dani replied as she checked the autopilot on the mini jet. The hateful costume in question was Dani’s yellow and blue costume which Dani had worn while she was working undercover in the M.L.F*. The same costume which Dani had worn when she attacked Muir Island. Rahne wasn’t one who held grudges and had long since forgiven her for the attack, but costumes fell below her radar. “ I don’t have a lot of spandex in my closet, nor the desire to make anything new either.”

 

(Dani attacked Muir Island while undercover with the M.L.F in Excalibur 104-105)  

 

Dani started to lower the mini jet below the clouds, double-checking the coordinates for where they were supposed to meet Mr. Parvenue along with the rest of the members of his proposed team.

 

“ We should see the place anytime…sonofa…” Dani muttered as she saw where she was to meet Parvenue. It was a round; twenty story building, located in the middle of Metro City. The top of the building was a large green house with a pool in the middle, and on the sides of the building, the twenty-foot letters spelling ‘Force Works’ was clearly seen. “ Un. Believable.”

 

“ What’s wrong wit it?”

 

“ The thing’s right out in the open! That’s like begging for an attack!”

 

 Dani lowered the mini jet, looking for a place to land. But before she could find a suitable landing zone, a blue female figure, looking like an odd cross between a roman gladiator and the little mermaid, left the building and flew to meet the mini jet. Dani tensed for a moment, expecting someone to come out and greet them but ready for an attack all the same. The blue woman motioned for Dani to follow her, and led them to the hangar.

 

“ Welcome to ‘The Work Place’. My name’s Kymaera. My friends call me Namorita, or Nita, if you like.” The young woman said as Dani and Rahne stepped out of the jet.

 

“ It’s a pleasure to meet you Kymaera,” Dani said, trying to sound business like, “ I’m Moon…Mirage and this is my friend, Wolfsbane.”

 

 “It’s actually our pleasure to have you here.” A new voice said. Dani turned, and saw two people standing at the entrance of the hangar. One was a tall, heavyset man, whom Dani guessed to be in his late fifties, wearing a fine Italian business suit. Standing next him was a red headed young woman in her early twenties, with light gray skin.

 

“ Your proposal piqued my curiosity Mr. Parvenue. Show me what you got.” Dani said bluntly.

 

“ Of course. If you’ll follow me, I’ll introduce you to the other members of Force Works.”

 

They left the hangar and entered the hall; Dani noted how business-like the entire floor was. As they walked down the hall, Dani watched Parvenue as closely as she could without being obvious. His body language was calm, reserved. Dani had read up on him, and knew he was an honest businessman and an associate of Professor Xavier. But that was about all she really knew about him. Something about him almost seemed hidden. It didn’t help any that Dani had no idea why he was putting together this team.

 

“ I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m putting this team together.” Parvenue said abruptly, “ Force Work is a tribute to my beloved wife.”

 

Dani glanced towards the red headed young woman that was hanging towards the back. The woman simply rolled her eyes.

 

“ No, not Ms. Sawyer,” Parvenue chuckled, “ Ms. Sawyer is my personal assistant. I’m proud to say that I’ve only had sex with two women in my entire life.”

 

Wolfsbane blushed at that comment, and he continued.

 

“ Recently, my wife of twenty seven years passed away. Cancer of the stomach.”

 

“ You have my condolences, Mr. Pavenue, but what does this have to do with your proposal?”

 

“ Because on her death bed, my sweet Bethany, confessed to me that she was a mutant. She never told me before because she was afraid that I might leave her. What kind of world is it that a woman can’t even entrust her husband with the knowledge she is a mutant?” He snarled.

 

“I’m verra sorry f’r yuir loss, Mr. Parvenue, but what does Force Works have tae do wit’ makin’ the world safer f’r mutants?” Wolfsbane asked.

 

“ Because people will never believe humans and mutants can work together until the fact is forced in their face. And that’s where Force Works comes in.”

 

“ Think of it as a gay-straight alliance for superheroes.” Kymaera interjected.

 

As Kymaera said that, Parvenue reached into his pocket and pressed a special button on his cell phone.

 

“ It’s a great idea, but how does your proposed team differ from any other, honestly? The Avengers, for instance have…”

 

“Chosen to stay out of any and all politics.”

 

“ The X-Men…”

 

“ Are composed almost entirely of mutants and are considered outlaws by the public and government.”

 

“ Excalibur and X-Force…”

 

“ Are run by the United Nations. I don’t think they would tolerate their own employees pointing out their own short comings.”

 

“ You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”

 

“ You don’t last long in the world of business if you don’t. Anything else?”

 

“ One more thing. Working with the X-Men and X-Force, I’ve come to expect a certain level of…professionalism from my teammates. I don’t want to be working with rookies.”

 

“ And you will have it. Allow me to show you to the other members of Force Works.” Parvenue said as they reached their destination, an assembly room where several other heroes were gathered. Of them, Dani immediately recognized Speedball and Nova from the New Warriors. The three men she didn’t recognize couldn’t be more different from one another. One was dressed in black leather, wearing a belt Dani knew was concealing weapons of some kind, an axe and sword on his back and wearing a baseball cap backwards. Next to him was a young blond male, was wearing a yellow and blue costume, with large metal, bird like wings protruding out of his back. Lastly, next to him was a young asian male, wearing a red and blue flight suit wearing what looked like a red metal backpack. 

 

“ Hey, are these the new recruits? About time the babe to hunk ratio evened out!” 

 

“ Try to show some maturity to our guests, Superball.” Parvenue sighed.

 

“ Speedball. If I’ve told ya’ once I’ve told you a million times.” Speedball replied.

 

“ Why don’t you all introduce yourself?”

 

A young man, dressed in mostly black leather stepped forward “ Name’s Adam X, I mean Adam Sol. I’m called X-Treme. Welcome to the team.”

 

“ We’re nae members yet.” Wolfsbane politely corrected.

 

-X-Treme? Why does that sound familiar?- Dani asked herself as another member introduced himself.

 

“ Well, we hope you change your mind about that.” The man with wings replied. “ My name’s Robert Gregs. I’m called Arsenal.”

 

“ Why do they call you that?”

 

“ Because I literally have an arsenal of powers. Super strength, agility, flight, steel skill, optic blasts, and a healing factor and bone claws.”

 

“ Mirage, Wolfsbane, it’s been some time, hasn’t it?” The young Asian man said as he stepped forward to introduce himself.

 

“ I’m sorry, have we met?”

 

“ I’m Takeshi Matsuya. But you would remember me as Taki.”

 

They both gave him blank stares.

 

“Wiz Kid, remember? Demon invasion, New York. The kid in the wheel chair? How could you forget that night?” Wiz Kid asked, somewhat dumbfounded.

 

“I think I remember you, now. But how are you…?”

 

Wiz Kid tapped on his knees, producing a metal sound.

 

“ Specially designed braces.”

 

As Nova and Speedball formally introduced themselves, no one noticed Parvenue answer his cell phone until he spoke two words that every hero in the room had long associated with trouble.

 

“ Oh dear,” He said, and the entire room went silent. There wasn’t a person in the room that didn’t catch the seriousness or the fear in his tone of voice, “ Yes, thank you.”

 

“ What’s the matter?” Nita asked.

 

“ A group of anti-mutant terrorists have taken a group of children hostage at the museum of Natural History. I can only guess they are doing this to get national attention” He replied somberly. 

 

“ What are their demands?”

 

“As incredible as it sounds, they want even harsher restrictions on mutant rights. They want all mutants to be sterilized and imprisoned within ghettoes. They have threatened to kill one hostage every hour if their demands aren’t met.” He explained.

 

“  I think we should handle this. Kicking in the heads of bigots is what we were brought together to do, after all.” Nova said, “ Are you two in?” He asked, looking towards Mirage and Wolfsbane.

 

“ We’re in, for now.” Dani replied, “ But can we get in without being noticed?”

 

“ There is a part of the museum that is currently being remodeled. Ms. Sawyer can take you there.”

 

“ It would be my pleasure, sir.” She replied dryly. Before Mirage had a chance to ask exactly how Ms. Sawyer would get them into the museum unnoticed, she motioned with her hands, and the heroes saw the world melt away, depositing them exactly where they wanted to be. Before anyone could thank her for the ride, she was gone.

 

***

 

“Is all this drama really necessary?” Ms. Sawyer asked as she returned to Parvenue.

 

“ Absolutely. I doubt Ms. Moonstar would join Force Works without some kind of outside influence.  According to my sources inside Shield, Ms. Moonstar is one of the best choices to lead Force Works. She’s professional, seasoned and intelligent. That she brought Wolfsbane, a former member of X-Factor was quite fortunate as well.”

 

“ For the record, sir, the hold you have on Force Works is tedious at best. The strip ends you’ve given them wouldn’t certainly won’t guarantee their loyality and X-Treme, who owes you the greatest debt, would turn on you in an instant if he learned the truth! You’re playing with fire, sir.”

 

“ As I have done all my life, Ms. Sawyer. Force Works, one way or another, will make the world better for mutants and humans, so no one else will know the fear my wife did.” He replied in a cold, matter of fact tone. He glanced at his watch, “ At any rate, that’s a matter for another day. I’m due in England in five minutes to.”

 

 Ms. Sawyer sighed and activated her powers. She knew how stubborn Parvenue was. She would never be able to convince Mr. Parvenue of the fact that Force Works would be more trouble than it was worth. Which meant she had to do something about Force Works herself. 

 

***

 

“ I’ll give us some privacy so we can plan our next move.” Dani said. She concentrated, and created an illusion of invisibility around Force Works.

 

“ Okay, here’s what we do…”

 

“ Wait a minute,” Speedball interrupted, “ Who made you leader?”

 

“ Do you have a leader?” Dani asked.

 

“ Umm…we hadn’t gotten to that part yet.” Nova replied.

 

“ Well, I’ve got a plan, if there are no objections.” Dani said smugly.

 

“ Sure, I guess.”

 

“ Good. Wolfsbane, what are we up against?”

 

 Wolfsbane shifted into her change form. She concentrated for a moment, and reached out with her enhanced senses, “ I would guess we’re up against six armed men, wit’ light body armor and automatic weapons from the smell o’ it. They’re in the main lobby.”

 

 “ I could deal with them myself, if you want, Mirage.” X-Treme suggested.

 

“ You sure?”

 

“ I took down X-Force by myself*. I’m quite sure.”

 

(In X-Force Annual 2)

 

“ Okay, here’s how we’ll go about it. If we all go charging in at once, we’ll most likely get someone killed. So, Nova, Arsenal, Kymaera, Wiz Kid, you got one minute to find an exit…”

 

“ And set up a parameter so they can’t escape, or receive any reinforcements.” Wiz Kid finished as he morphed his backpack into a rocket pack “Excellent plan.”

 

With that, they left. Mirage turned to Speedball,

 

“Speedball, can you extend your force field around others?”

 

“ Yeah, piece of cake.”

 

“ Good. Here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll get us close to these wack jobs. When I say go, I want you to get to the hostages and protect them with your field so they don’t get hit in the cross fire while X-Treme deals with them.”

 

Speedball nodded in agreement, and the heroes headed towards the lobby, concealed by Mirage’s powers. Once they reached the lobby, they saw that Rahne had indeed been correct. Six armed men were standing around a group of terrified children, with a few odd adults, who were huddled together in the center of the lobby. As Dani took this all in, she couldn’t help but think how wrong this situation felt. It had been her experience that the terrorists would be wasting their breath trying to justify themselves to their hostages, but they weren’t doing that. They were simply standing around, as though they were waiting for something. Dani silently motioned for Speedball and X-Treme to move in.

 

  Once Mirage signaled to move, X-Treme charged forward with incredible speed. With three blades in each hand, he leapt into the air and spun, releasingone blade at each terrorist, striking them before they had even realized they were under attack and drawing a small amount of blood.

 

“ Burn!”

 

With that word, X-Treme activated his mutant ability to ignite the electrolytes in a person’s blood after it was oxygenated. The six terrorists slumped to the ground, unconscious.

 

“ Well, that was anti-climatic.” Speedball commented. By the time he reached the hostages, the situation was over. Wolfsbane whacked him upside the head.

 

“ It’s nae over yet,” She chastised, “ We need tae get the wee bairns oot!”

 

“ ‘Bairns? What the heck are ‘bairns’?” Speedball asked mockingly.

 

“ Wolfsbane, you and Speedball get the kids out of here and tell the cops that the situation is clear. Me and X-Treme will keep an eye on things here.”

 

As Speedball and Wolfsbane escorted the hostages out, Mirage glanced at the weapons the terrorists were holding, and noticed something odd. The safeties on the weapons were on. For reasons she couldn’t explain, Mirage walked over to one terrorist and took the magazine out of his Uzi.

 

“ That’s odd.”

 

“ What’s that?” X-Treme asked.

 

Mirage flicked a bullet at him that she had taken out of the clip.

 

“ They were using rubber bullets and had the safeties on.” She replied, “ Why would they do that?”

 

“ These guys are an anti-mutant group, right? Maybe they didn’t want to hurt any humans?”

 

“ Maybe…”

 

***

 

“ Everythin’ all right!” Wolfsbane shouted as she emerged from the museum, carrying one child who was too scared to walk out under her own power. The crowd of police and bystanders that had gathered outside let out a collective sigh of relief. Several officers came forward to take the children to their anxious parents.

 

“ I’ll take her off your hands, beautiful.”

 

Wolfsbane turned to the police officer that had spoken to her and saw a handsome, young blond man with shining blues and an incredible similarity to

 

“ Doug?” She gasped.

 

“ Umm, yeah. My name’s Doug. Doug Mathews.” He replied as he gently took the child from Wolfsbane’s arms, “ How did you know?”

 

“ Umm, well, yuir so handsome, I mean, yuir eyes, I mean lucky guess!” She stammered quickly, blushing.

 

“ Good guess. You’re pretty easy on the eyes yourself.” Doug replied as he took the child away.

 

-Why is muh heart beating so fast?-Wolfsbane asked herself.

 

***

 

When Nova agreed to take the north end of the museum, he truly didn’t expect anything to happen. But he kept his eyes peeled. And he was rather startled when he saw a man wearing a purple turban and blue spandex, carrying on odd shaped bow slyly stepping out on the fire exit. Nova activated the comm. unit in his helmet,

 

“ Wiz Kid, quick question. Metro City doesn’t have any local heroes, right?”

 

“ Correct. Outside of Force Works, Metro City is devoid of any superhumans with good, moral character. Why do you ask?” 

 

“ Because someone in spandex is sneaking out one of the back exits. I’m going to check it out.” Nova explained. He started to descend, but in a flash of light, the man was gone.

 

“ What the hell?” Nova looked quickly looked around, using his enhanced vision to look for where the man had disappeared. He saw him on the horizon(from Nova’s perspective, anyway), being held aloft by a woman dressed in rather skimpy cloths. Nova pressed the comm. unit on his helmet again.

 

“ Hey Wiz Kid, that guy I asked about? He’s flown the coup with some Hawaiian girl, but I’m right on their butts. You guys saddle up and follow my signal.”

 

“ Understood. Be careful.”

 

“ Aren’t I always?”

 

“ From the little I know of you, no.”

 

“ Damn straight. That’s what makes me me. See you in a little.”

***

 

“ What the hell were you thinking? You could have gotten someone killed!”

 

 Mirage rubbed her head in frustration as Commissioner Stone berated her for Force Works actions. Although she barely knew the man, she suspected that he was using her as a vent to relieve some of the stress he had been under, and she was right. Stone, until recently, had been a member of Code: Blue. That was until he accepted a lucrative offer to become the commissioner of Metro City. As the ‘new guy on the block’, Stone felt that he had to make it clear who was running the show. And that was hard to do when super heroes were throwing their weight around.

 

 “ What if you made a mistake? There isn’t any room for error in this business!” He continued.

 

“ If you want to go into what ifs, we could be here all day, Stone. We’re professionals, and we got the job done, so back off!” Mirage snapped.

 

“ Sorry to break up this lovely discussion, but we have a problem.” Kymaera interrupted. The rest of Force Works was gathered behind her, clearly waiting for something. She quickly explained the situation to Mirage.

 

“ We’ll need to check it out.” Mirage sighed. She had hoped for some quite time to think this entire ordeal out, but she suspected she wouldn’t get it.

 

“ Not us.” X-Treme said.

 

“ Excuse me?” Mirage asked

 

“ If you and Wolfsbane coming with us, you’re coming as full members. We don’t know what we’re getting into, and we all need to know where everyone stands.” X-Treme explained.

 

*They seem nice enough* Wolfsbane commented over their shared psi-link.

 

“ Fine, we’re in for the duration, then. Do you guys have a plane or some mode of transportation?”

 

X-Treme pointed up, and a ship suddenly appeared. It’s sharp was similar to that of a stealth bomber, but it was silver and the cockpit was much larger than that of a stealth bomber.

 

“ Welcome to the Stealth Wing. It’s start of the art, complements of Mr. Parvenue.” X-Treme said as he took the controls.

 

“ X-Treme, a question?”

 

“ Yeah, Mirage?”

 

“ I remember hearing about you from my friends in X-Force. They mentioned that you had amnesia.”

 

“ Had. Past tense being the operative subject here. Why do you ask?”

 

 Mirage wrinkled her nose “ I like to know where everyone stands.”

 

***

  

An old Oil refinery on the edge of the Black Sea

 

The fallen god known as Marduk watched the his fellow gods in exile Papahanau-Moku(commonly referred to as Papa for obvious reasons) and Aqhat return from their mission, he felt the closest thing to happiness beat in his heart for the first time in a thousand years.

 

“ I trust you have the necklace?”

 

“ Of course. Once we place it on her, she will be our puppet.” Aqhat answered. He produced a beetle shaped scarab from his belt.

 

“ With our magics, she is already our puppet,” Papa interjected as they walked into the bowels of the refinery “ Why bother with this trinket?” 

 

“ Insurance.” Marduk replied. The three heard a sonic boom, just before the alarms started screaming, and the three fallen gods rushed towards the security monitors. Marduk's face went pale when he saw the screen.

 

“ It’s some blasted superhero!”

 

“ Why would he be here?”

 

“ Why else? He must have followed us!”

 

“ Insurance indeed.” Papa muttered.

 

“ We can defeat one super hero.” Marduk growled. The second he finished his sentence, another sonic boom was heard, and the stealth wing came into view.

 

“ We have to get out of here!” Aqhat pleaded, “ We are to far from the Genesis Well! If we are defeated…”

 

“ Then we will be nothing.” Papa finished.

 

“ We can still reclaim her at a later time.” Marduk said, hoping to relieve his fellows’ concerns, “ I made sure of that.”

 

***

 

“ What’s the situation, Nova?” Mirage asked as she stepped out of the Stealth Wing.

 

“ That guy I was following ducked inside and hasn’t come out yet. The place is otherwise clear.”

 

“ Not to be a spoil sport here,” Speedball said, “ But do we have any proof that this guy has committed a crime of any kind, other than one hell of a disappearing act?”

 

“ We’re just making sure everything is on the level, toothpick,” Nova said, “ Besides, with the per diem we’re getting, we have to do something!”

 

Suddenly, the building that Aqhat disappeared into exploded, and at the epic center stood a young woman dressed in a white and blue suit, red cape, a headband with wings and wielding a golden mallet. She was also wearing a necklace

 

“ Still think Nova’s suspicion is unfounded?” Wiz Kid asked Speedball as a visor came out of his backpack and over his eyes. “ Let’s see what we have hear…”

 

“ Alpha level power readings, source unknown. Eighty points of comparison with the hero/Avenger Thor.” His pack explained. Wiz Kid tapped on his visor, glancing at the mysterious young woman, “ She doesn’t look that much like Thor, hammer aside.”

 

“ Is she dangerous?” Kymaera asked.

 

“I… am…Tarene,” The young woman declared, “And you are to be destroyed, by the will of the Everlasting.”   

 

And with that, she threw his golden mallet at Force Works, who quickly shattered. The hammer easily destroyed a tower behind Force Works before returning to Tarene’s hand.

 

“ I’d wager yes.” Speedball said.

 

“ Wiz Kid, Arsenal, I got a plan, but I need you to hold this ‘Tarene’ off for a few seconds!”

 

The rest of the team quickly huddled around Mirage, not wasting a second, “ Whoever this person is, she’s being controlled by that necklace she’s wearing. I don’t think she’ll part with it willingly, so here’s the plan…”

 

“ You can count on us!” Arsenal said as he took to the air. He unleashed an optic blast at Tarene’s feet, knocking her off balance. He then transformed his body into living steel and swooped down, smashing into her. Tarene was barely budged, and smacked Arsenal a dozen yards away. Wiz kid picked up the assault where Arsenal left off; morphing his backpack around his hands and creating powerful laser cannons. He unleashed a barrage of energy at Tarene, but she barely noticed.

 

“ Feel free to fall at anytime!” Wiz Kid said nervously. Tarene ignored him and started to walk towards him, intent on tearing his head off his shoulders. So caught up in the battle, no one in Force Works noticed Papa fly away with Aqhat and Marduk.

 

“ Now!” Mirage shouted.

 

Tarene turned to see Wolfsbane running towards her, carrying Speedball over her head. At the same time, Nova and Kymaera were taking to the air.

 

“ I don’t like this plan!” Speedball shouted. Wolfsbane ignored him and threw him at Tarene with all her superhuman strength. Tarene ducked under Speedball at the last second and raised her mallet to throw at Wolfsbane. But before she could do that, her legs flew out from under her. Speedball had ricocheted, and hit her in her knees at incredible speed, knocking her on her butt. Nova and Kymaera followed thru, diving from the sky and hitting Tarene with the world’s most powerful pile driver. The two lovers continued to batter her with all their strength, but after a few seconds, Tarene threw them off.

 

“ You have sown the wind, and you will reap the whirl wind!” Tarene snarled, “ I’ll ground your bones to dust!”

 

Mirage noticed that her rage didn’t seem to be part of her mind control, but genuinely Tarene’s. Tarene wiped some blood off her mouth and started to advance on the team. But her threat was quickly ended in one word. 

 

***

 

“ You were correct, Mirage. That necklace was controlling her. It emitted alpha waves that suppressed her mind.” Wiz Kid said as he examined the beetle necklace they removed from Tarene. “ How did you know?”

 

“ It didn’t fit with the rest of her out fit.” Mirage smirked. She turned to Nova, Wolfsbane and Speedball, whom she ordered to search the area.

 

“ We got squat, chief.” Speedball reported.

 

-They’re already calling me chief- Mirage sighed to herself.  

 

 “ So what do we do with her?” Kymaera asked, pointing towards the unconscious Tarene. She had restraints on her arms and legs, designed by Wiz Kid. “ We need to figure something out before she wakes up.”

 

“ Not to worry, those restraints will hold her until we can determine what exactly can be done with her.”

 

Tarene moaned, and with ridiculous ease, ripped thru the restraints and rubbed her head.

 

“ Damnit! Form on me!” Mirage ordered. Mirage readied her psychic arrows, X-Treme took his axe on one hand and three throwing blades in his other, Wiz Kid formed laser guns around his hands and Arsenal unsheathed his bone claws.

 

“ On three…” Mirage ordered. Tarene was still rubbing her head, seemingly oblivious to Force Work’s threat.

 

“ Wait!” Wolfsbane jumped between her teammates and Tarene, “ We don’ know if she’s a threat! Give me a chance t’ talk tae her!”

 

“ Rahne…”

 

“ Trust me Dani.” Wolfsbane said as she turned to Tarene. She shifted to her human form and carefully approached the girl, who looked terribly confused, “ ‘ello, muh name’s Rahne Sinclair, what’s yuir name?”

 

Mirage tensed as Rahne approached the young woman. Rahne was Dani’s soul mate, and she was walking towards a powerhouse in her most vulnerable state.

 

“ I…am Tarene.” She replied hesitantly.

 

“ Do ye remember how ye got ‘ere?”

 

“ No.”

 

“ Do you remember who your parents are?” Arsenal asked, “ Or maybe where you live?”

 

“ I…don’t remember anything.” She replied.

 

“ O great, another ‘so mysterious I don’t even know myself’ type.” Speedball said under his breath

 

 “Are you warriors?” Tarene asked.

 

“ Umm yes. Would… ye like t’ join us?” Wolfsbane offered.

 

*Rahne, what are you doing! She can’t join the team!* Dani shouted over their psi-link.

 

*She’s a bloody powerhouse! What else ken we do wit’ her?* Rahne demanded. Dani didn’t respond, but she knew Rahne was right. This ‘Tarene’ was a loose cannon, and it wasn’t like they could hand her over to social services. Whether they liked it or not, Tarene was their problem now.

 

“ Who do you fight for?”

 

“ Everyone.” Arsenal answered.

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

Dragon Knights

 

Metro City, The Work Place

 

“ Are we almost done yet?” The man called Nova, Richard Rider to his friends, asked. He was standing on a special platform in the lab of his teammate Wiz Kid, with dozens of scanners focused on him, examining him. This had been going on for over half an hour, and Nova was beginning to get tired of it.

 

“ Just a few more seconds,” Wiz Kid replied as he wheeled himself over to his computer consul. He frowned as he read the print out.

 

“ So, what’s wrong with my powers?” Nova asked as he stepped down off, “ They were screwy for a while, but that’s seems to have stopped now.”

 

“ Well, from I’ve compared the scans I took from those that were taken during your time in the New Warriors, and there are considerable differences.  There’s good news and, of course, bad news. You see, your energy matrix has been…”

 

“ Hold up a second, ‘Kid” Nova said, “ English please?”

 

“ I’ll try to dumb it down for you.” Wiz Kid said with a slight trace of annoyance, “The good news, from what I can tell, is that your powers have now stabilized. You are as strong and as fast you ever were. You could give the Thing a run for his money.”

 

“ Really?”

 

“ No, he would likely kick your ass. You see, he uses his head as something other than a blunt object.”

 

“ Whatever,” Nova muttered, “ What about my energy powers? I used to be able to release gravity pulses, absorb some energies and optic blasts. Now, the weakest gravity pulse feels like to a freakin’ heart attack and I haven’t been able to muster up my eye beams in weeks.”

 

“ That would be the bad news. As far as I can tell, your independent energy powers are completely gone now. No more optic blasts or gravity pulses whatsoever.”

 

“ Independent?”

 

“ You can still absorb energy,” Wiz Kid continued, “ In fact, you can now absorb almost any kind of energy now, with the exception of kinetic, but with one rather serious draw back. Observe.”

 

With that statement, Wiz Kid picked up a taser from his worktable and shocked Nova’s hand.

 

“ Ahh! Son of a… that hurt!” Nova growled as whipped his hand back, “But… how?”

 

“ Oh please, the charge wasn’t **_that_** much.” Wiz Kid sighed.

 

“ But what did you use? I actually felt that!”

 

“ Exactly. You see, your energy absorption powers are cross-wired somewhat with your nervous system. You can absorb, transform and rechannel any energy, but when you absorb it…”

 

“ It’ll hurt like hell and could kill me.” Nova finished, “ I’m thick headed, not stupid.”

 

“ So you’re vulnerable to energy attacks. It’s not that big a problem now that I know about it.”

 

Wiz Kid and Nova turned and saw Danielle Moonstar, code named Mirage, and Rahne Sinclair, code named Wolfsbane standing at the door to the lab. Dani was wearing her blue and yellow costume she had worn with the M.L.F, but was also armed with a collapsible bow and a quiver of arrows. They were all regular arrows, but Dani felt she needed something to fall back on if her powers ever failed.

 

“ Hey chief, what’s up?”

 

“ I was just gathering everyone for our briefing. The others are in the training room.”

 

Rahne glanced at Taki, who was in his wheel chair, “ Where are yuir braces?”

 

“ I’m wearing them now, Rahne. I simply prefer to use them only on missions.”

 

“Why?”

 

“ Well, why do you tell people you’re a mutant instead of telling them that you gained your powers some other way?”

 

 

***

 

The Work Place, Training Room

 

Arsenal, Kymaera and Speedball(held aloft by ‘Nita) surveyed the abandoned city block below them, looking for their target. Of course, what they were really looking at wasn’t an empty city block at all. Rather, it was a hard light hologram designed to simulate any environment they wanted or needed. Not half as advanced as the X-Men’s Danger Room, as the Training Room consumed three times the energy the Danger Room did for the same effect, but it got the job done.

 

“ You’d think a guy dressed in black leather and armed with medieval weapons would be easy to find!”

 

“ Speedball, if there’s one thing I know about Adam, it’s that if he doesn’t want to be found, he won’t be.” Arsenal said.

 

“ I see him.” Kymaera muttered.

 

“ Where?”

 

“ I’m right below you.” X-Treme answered. Arsenal looked down, and saw X-Treme had looking up at them, with his arms crossed and tapping his foot impatiently.

 

“ I got tired of waiting for you guys to find me, so I decided to make it easy for you. I’ve been standing here five minutes now.”

 

“ Operation Marion Barry!” Arsenal shouted as he swooped up. He swooped down, taking aim at X-Treme. At the same time, he concentrated, transforming his skin into indestructible steel and retracting his metal wings into his body until they were small stumps. X-Treme leaped back as Arsenal landed with a loud –THA-THOOM!

 

“ Why aren’t you using the bone claws?” X-Treme asked.

 

“Not that fond of them.” Arsenal answered as he charged forward. He threw a flurry of punches at X-Treme, each one missing him by a large margin but driving him back.

 

“ You should know one thing about me by now, Bobby” X-Treme said nonchalantly as he grabbed Arsenal’s left arm, spun, shifted his weight and threw Arsenal over his shoulder, “ You never want to get within arm’s length. Remember, tuck your head!”

 

X-Treme then turned, ready for Kymaera and Speedball’s attack.

 

“ You know, why we never thought to do this more in the New Warriors, I’ll never know.”

 

“ Personal respect, maybe!?”

 

“ Nah…” Kymaera commented as she threw Speedball towards X-Treme. X-Treme easily dodged the attack, but Speedball continued to bounce around him at an ever-increasing speed, boxing him in.

 

As Speedball was cornering X-Treme, she took to the air and darted towards him. X-Treme again easily dodged her, but he wasn’t her target. Kymaera grabbed the pavement and heaved upward. X-Treme was thrown into the air, unprepared. Speedball, seeing this, twisted, and ricocheted right towards X-Treme.

 

Wham!

 

Speedball smashed into X-Treme and knocked him into a far wall. X-Treme slumped to the ground, and didn’t move.

 

“ Ohmygod! Did I hurt him?”

 

“ He’s fine.” Arsenal said as he picked himself up and dusted himself off. Speedball hesitantly approached X-Treme. He crouched down in front of him, trying to see if he was indeed all right. Without opening his eye’s, X-Treme lashed out and grabbed Speedball by the throat.

 

“Ack…please don’t kill me…” Speedball whimpered.

 

“ Told you he was fine.”

 

“ Despite the fact that you are invulnerable to physical harm, you need to breathe in your Speedball form,” X-Treme explained, ignoring Speedball’s comments, “ So be careful how close you get to an enemy.”

 

X-Treme stood up and gave Speedball a slap on the back, despite himself. “Still, that was a good plan.”

 

X-Treme knew Speedball, more so than any other member of Force Works, was nervous around him, likely somewhat scared of him. X-Treme couldn’t really blame him, but he liked Speedball nonetheless.

 

“ Want to go again?” Arsenal asked, “ I’d like to go for three out of five today.”

 

“ As opposed to the normal one out of three?” X-Treme corrected, with a slight smile, “ Getting a little cocky are we?”

 

“ Sorry to interrupt, but I’ve got our mission for today.” Mirage announced as she entered the Training Room. “ May I?”

 

“ Go ahead.” Kymaera said, “ We’ve put this off long enough.”

 

“ Okay.” Mirage took a deep breath and began, “ As you may or may not know, Metro City in huge drug port into the United States. Over three hundred million dollars in drugs enters the United States from here. And due to massive corruption in the local police department, it’s hard to stem that flow. But there is good news. Taki?”

 

Wiz Kid wheeled himself forward,  “ Over the past nine days, Wolfsbane and I have identified dozens of ‘Crack houses’ and drug safe houses thru out this city, Wolfsbane using her enhanced sense of smell and I using advanced scanners. We likely could have found more if someone wasn’t so focused on Officer Mathews.” Taki added.

 

 Wolfsbane rolled her eyes at the comment. Doug was cute, and seemed nice enough, but she didn’t let that get in the way of her work.

 

“ Way to violate the Fourth Amendment, chief.”

 

“ Thank you, Speedball.” Mirage replied, deciding not to be baited.

 

“ In the course of our investigation, we discovered that the villain known as Night Shade is running the drug trade here.”

 

A hologram of a tall black woman wearing a bikini top, two six shooters and long leather boots that reached above her knees, appeared, “ She’s tangled with Captain America and Power Man and Iron Fist now and then. Not what I would call dangerous, but we should be careful. At any rate, there is an open arrest warrant out for her, so taking her out of the picture shouldn’t be problematic.”

 

“ One last point. When we told the police force what we were doing, they seemed less than pleased. Said something about upsetting their non-existent timetable. So let’s be diplomatic, okay? Any questions?”

 

“ I have one, Dani.”

 

“ Yeah, Arsenal?”

 

“ Why are we holding the briefing in the training room?”

 

“ There you guys are! I’ve been looking all over for you!”

 

The team turned towards the door, and looked towards the door. In it was the young blond mallet-carrying woman known only as Tarene. Force Works had freed her from the control of the mysterious group known as the Everlasting on their first official mission and taken her in. And even after nine days of trying, that’s still the sum total of information Force Works really had on her.

 

“ That’s why.” Mirage muttered, “ Tarene, I thought I asked you to stay on the Rec room.”

 

“ I know,” She replied as she absently played with her hair, “ But I got bored. I heard that you’re going on a mission, can I come with? Please?”

 

“ **_No_**!” Mirage yelled, almost involuntarily, “ I mean, you’re untrained Tarene. It’s not safe for you out there.”

 

“ How am I ever going to be trained enough to come with you if you keep me here? I want to be a warrior!” Tarene pouted, “ Maybe I should just leave.”

 

Mirage cringed at that. Legally, Force Works had no right to keep Tarene prisoner, but at the same time, they couldn’t allow such power to run around unchecked. She clucked her tongue, and made a compromise.

 

“ Nova will stay here and train you. That okay?”

 

“ What! I’m the second in command of this team, not a baby sitter!” Nova protested. Mirage, rather than make the debate public, activated her comm. unit to Nova.

 

“ You’re also the only one who could survive her screwing up, Rider. She needs training, and you’re the safest one to give it to her.”

 

Nova didn’t reply, but he relented.

 

“ Any other questions? No? Good. We’ll break into smaller teams and get to work.”

 

“ What about the Press conference?” Wiz Kid asked as he stood up and transformed his wheel chair into his hi tech backpack, “ Don’t you want us there?”

 

“ I’ll be enough.”

 

“ Are you…”

 

“ I’m positive.”

 

“ It’s just the usual X cloak and dagger stuff.” Speedball whispered to Wiz Kid. If Mirage heard him, she didn’t acknowledge it. 

 

***

 

Mirage waited a few moments for the assembled press to calm down so she could speak. Dani fought the urge to simply walk away from this press conference and do her job. She was certain that, no matter what she did, that no matter the amount of good they performed, how many lives they saved, the difference they made…

 

 _Stop it._ She thought to herself, _Don’t do their job for them._

She cleared her throat, and started, “ Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. I am Mirage, the leader of Force Works.”

 

“ Where is the rest of the team?” One reporter interrupted.

 

“ Busy. If I may continue? I’ll get straight to the point. Human/ Mutant relations could be better. They could be a lot better, in fact. Some people want to cling to the belief that humans and mutants could never work together. Some believe that, by in large, it simply isn’t possible for humans and mutants to work together. Force Works, an alliance of human and mutant heroes, will prove them wrong. We will strive to make the world a better place for everyone. We don’t fight for mutants. We don’t fight for humans. We fight for everyone. And we will make a difference. Any questions?”

 

“ Tom Cannon for the Daily Bugle. What do you say to the accusation that you are doing this for the money? My sources tell me that Parvenue pays a handsome strip-end and provides room and board.”

 

“ Those accusations are baseless. In fact, several members of Force Works are independently wealthy. Each and every member of Force Works is here because they believe in peaceful human mutant coexistence.” Dani replied. _The Avengers are paid and get free room and board as well, and the media never asks them that question_  

 

“ John Burne for the Nation Inquirer. Why did you choose the name Force Works?”

 

“ The name was chosen for us by Mr. Parvenue, our sponsor. Force Works is a copy righted name that Mr. Parvenue bought from Stark-Fujikawa some time back.” Dani made sure to emphasize the word copy righted. “ I’m afraid that will have to all for today. Thank all you for coming.”

 

Mirage turned and left the Press Room as fast as she could move without running. Reporters shouted more questions at her, but Mirage simply ignored them as she walked down the hall and towards the private elevators.

 

“ That… was the single worse press conference I have ever seen.” A voice said behind her. Mirage instantly recognized the voice of their liaison to Parvenue, Edie Sawyer.

 

“ I’m a fighter, not a politician. Sue me.”

 

“ As leader of Force Works, you’ll have to be both.”

 

“ Oh?”

 

“ That **_was_** the idea behind Force Works. One of them, anyways. Everyone needs someone to speak for them. Blacks have the NAACP and Jesse Jackson, Jews have the Anti-Defamation League, feminists have N.O.W, etc.  Us muties only have Magneto, and now, you. Not much, but it’s a start. So get used to it, Moonstar.” Ms. Sawyer said with thinly veiled malice.

 

“ Why are you here?”   

 

“ I’m just here to remind you that I expect a full report on your teams actions on my desk by 12 o clock tomorrow. Don’t be late.” And with that, she teleported away without another word.

 

“ Bitch.”

 

***

 

“ This is like, border line brutality.” Speedball said as he smashed into two drug dealers. He, along with the rest of Force Works, were spending their day cleaning out crack houses with the police and arresting drug dealers. He had been at it for three hours now, closing down a total of ten crack houses and he had yet to face any real credible opposition.

 

“ How so?” Wiz Kid asked. He formed a high tech rifle with his backpack and aimed it at several charging gang members. He fired, and the gang members fell to the ground vomiting, unable to even stand.

 

“ What did you do to those guys?”

 

“ I disrupted their inner ears, making it impossible for them to stand. Didn’t you do this sort of stuff in the Warriors? Taking down drug dealers, I mean?”

 

“ Yeah, but it just feels wrong for some reason.” Speedball rubbed his head, trying to clear his thoughts, “ I mean, we never did it to this scale, and it’s not like this is a fair fight to begin with. Superheroes vs. street punks is kinda lop sided.”

 

“ Just because we can win a fight with incredible ease does not mean we should shy from it. That’s what kept the U.S out of Afghanistan.” Wiz Kid said as he aimed his sonic rifle as several other gang members whom he missed.

 

“ Doesn’t mean we have too fight it, either. And it doesn’t mean we’re doing the right thing.”

 

***

 

“ Okay, Tarene, I’m going to see what exactly your limits with that mallet of yours is.” Nova said as he keyed several commands from the training room. Below, Tarene waited anxiously for the simulation to start. Nova entered several commands, and a huge, twenty-foot tall humanoid robot appeared across the room from Tarene.

 

“ Okay, Tarene, this is little monster is your partner. Try hitting it with your mallet.”

 

Tarene did as she was told. She spun her mallet for a few seconds before releasing it at the robot. The mallet smashed thru the robot like paper, but it didn’t stop there. The mallet kept on going, smashing out thru the specially reinforced training room walls before the mallet turned around in mid air and smashed a new hole in the wall, returning to Tarene’s hand.

 

“ How was that?” She asked innocently.

 

“ Blue Blazes…” Nova muttered. He’d hit those same walls at full speed before (not intentionally) and hadn’t done half the damage Tarene had. “ Umm, lets try something else.” Nova suggested. _Dani isn’t going to like this_

 

****

 

“ So, this is it?” X-Treme asked, motioning towards the warehouse in front of them. From the outside, the warehouse looked abandoned, with trash piled up all around it. But all the windows were tinted, and the only door they could find was titanium-reinforced door. Music and general commotion could clearly be heard from the outside.

 

“ According to Wolfsbane, this is where Nightshade’s enforcers hang out.” Arsenal answered.

 

“ Then let’s get this over with.” X-Treme unsheathed his sword. It was a heavy two and a half foot long sword with a double blade and a jagged metal hand guard. X-Treme kicked the door in and as he entered, he noticed that the patrons barely paid him any mind. Apparently, they had grown accustomed to someone breaking down the door, and that someone was never a hero before.

 

“ Alright, listen up! We’re looking for Nightshade’s thugs. Specifically, Puff Adder, Disc, and some other losers. We were told they hang here.” X-Treme shouted over the noise. If anyone heard what he said, they certainly didn’t show it.

 

“ I said…”

 

“ Shut up, leather boy!” A random patron yelled. Arsenal placed his hand on his friends shoulder,

 

“ I think I can get their attention.”

 

He stepped forward, “ Listen up!” He shouted

 

Snikkt!

 

The second Arsenal popped his bone claws, all conversation in the bar stopped and everyone’s eyes were on Arsenal and X-Treme.

 

 _Things are good for something after all_ He thought to himself as he retracted his claws. “ Thank you. We’re looking for a group of individuals who are in the employ of Nightshade. We would like to have a few words with them.”

 

“ That would be us.” A voice said from the bar. The man stood up, revealing himself to be a good eight feet tall with broad shoulders. Arsenal recognized him as Puff Adder, one of the survivors of the Serpent Society. Standing next to him were Cottonmouth and Coachwhip, both former members of the Serpent Society, along with Disc and Stiletto.

 

“ Do you two losers have any last requests?” Cottonmouth asked as they started to advance. By now the patrons of the bar were making a mad dash for the door, with no one wanting to be caught in upcoming fight.

 

“ Yes, that you villains get some better cliché’s.” X-Treme said as he leaped forward, “ The lady with the whip and big guy are your, Arsenal.”

 

Stiletto, who wore a red armor that shot tiny flechettes at whomever he chose, unleashed a barrage of his weapons at X-Treme. X-Treme didn’t bother to dodge them. With hard earned skill and using his superhuman reflexes, he batted every single one of them out of the air and to the ground.

 

“ That’s…that’s impossible!” He shouted.

 

“ If I had a dime for every time a heard that.” X-Treme sighed as he pulled out several throwing blades from his belt. He threw them at Cottonmouth, Disc and Stiletto, nicking them in the shoulder and drawing a small amount of blood.

 

“ Burn!”

 

The villains screamed as X-Treme burned the electrolytes in their blood and fell to the ground.

 

“ Adam, look out!”

 

X-Treme ducked in time to avoid the electrical whips of the villainess Coachwhip. X-Treme looked and saw that Arsenal was still dealing with Puff Adder.

 

“ I thought you had her!” X-Treme complained as he dodged another attack. With his speed and strength, he could easily defeat her himself. But he didn’t.

 

“ I’m kind of busy!” Arsenal grunted as he grappled with Puff Adder.

 

“ Don’t worry, you’ll be dead in a moment.” Puff Adder said smugly.

 

“ Don’t think so.” Arsenal leaped up, smashing his steel head into Puff Adder’s nose. He then brought his foot up and kicked Puff Adder in the groin. Puff Adder stepped back, his hands going to cover both his broken nose and injured manhood.

 

“ Good bye.” Arsenal unleashed his most powerful optic blast at Puff Adder, smashing him in the chest and knocking him out. He turned to see that X-Treme still was dodging Coachwhip.

 

“ Hell.” He muttered. He unleashed a weak optic blast and knocked her out.

 

“ Thanks.”

 

“ No problem, Adam. And Adam?” Arsenal walked over to his friend and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, “ Two things. One, it’s  “If I had a nickel”, not dime. And two, hitting a woman doesn’t make you like your father.”

 

“ Yeah, yeah. Keep that last part to yourself, okay?” X-Treme said, uncomfortable with the subject, “ Call Mirage. She should be able to pull the image of Nightshade’s hide out from these guys minds.”

 

***

 

Despite the fact that they didn’t expect Nightshade to put up much of a fight, Force Works decided to confront her together. Dani had pulled an image of her hideout from Cottonmouth’s mind, and the team, who were still unfamiliar with Metro City, was scouring the city on a hover platform created by Wiz Kid.

 

“ How was training?” Dani asked Nova absently.

 

“Don’t ask.” Nova responded, “ Anyone see it yet?” 

 

“ Over there,” Wolfsbane pointed north, “ I see it.”

 

Taki turned the hover platform in the direction Wolfsbane indicated, and soon saw what they recognized as Nightshade’s hide out hideout. It wasn’t glitzy or glamour in any way, really. In fact, it was a run down pool hall on the corner of a dilapidated street. To everyone’s surprise, Nightshade was standing outside in her costume, alongside a six-foot Asian man in an old business suit.

 

“ Okay, this smells.” Mirage muttered to herself.

 

 _Ye don’ know the half o’ it_ Wolfsbane said over the psi-link she shared with her friend, _that man besides her smells o’ magic and evil. Watch yuir step_

X-Treme locked eyes with the Asian man, equally suspicious of him. Unknown to anyone but himself, the energy X-Treme used to ‘burn’ people with also allowed him to evaluate a person. He would know what powers, or physical abilities they had, if any. And he got a very strange reading from the man. The Asian man stared back, not the least bit intimidated by the superhumans who were approaching.

Mirage glanced around and saw that one police officer had already made it on the scene. Specifically, Officer Doug Mathews.

_Looks like your boy friend’s here_ Mirage said over their psi-link teasingly. Wolfsbane blushed, but kept her thoughts to herself.

 

“ She’s been standing here for about ten minutes. I guess she’s waiting for you. I just happened to be in the neighborhood and came across her.” Doug explained. “ Hey, Rahne.”

 

“ First time basis?” Kymaera whispered.

 

“ Y’all can get the hell out of my city.” Nightshade said abruptly.

 

“ Sorry, Nightshade, but Force Works isn’t going anywhere. You, on the other hand, are a different story.” Mirage said.

 

“ That so? Well, let me tell you a little story, little girl. There was once a dragon called Chiantang, the Black Dragon who crossed swords with Colleen Wing. Ta be accurate, her sword crossed his neck while he was in human form. Good thing he’s a magic dude, though. With a little help, they can die a dozen times and still come back. Years later, I come along, being the nice person that I am, and brought him back to serve me.” Nightshade huffed. She motioned, and the Asian man stepped forward.

 

“ Ooookay, word of advise, Nightshade?” Speedball said, “ Lay.off.the.smack. You’ll thank me.”

 

“ You’ll not laugh when you have felt my power, boy!” The Asian man declared. Before their eyes, his skin turned green and grew scales; wings sprouted from his back and started to grow taller. Once he was fully transformed, he stood nine stories in height, with a head as big as a small house, his legs reaching across the four lane street and a wingspan and tail that was the length of a city block He roared, knocking Force Works and Officer Mathews on their asses.

 

“ I am the Black Dragon, and I will scorch the flesh from your body and pick my teeth with your bones!”

 

“ Not here ya won’t!” Nightshade shouted, “ These people pay good protection money! Takes this to the docks!”

 

“ Very well.” Black Dragon growled. With a flap of his wings, he took to the air and headed to the docks, as ordered. Force Works was knocked over by the gust of wind created by his wings.

 

“Well, now, **_that_** was new.” Speedball said as he brushed himself off,  “Umm, Do we have to follow Puff the color blind dragon? I mean, I’m sure he’s an endangered species, and I really don’t want P.E.T.A on my ass…”

 

“ No one said this would be easy.” Mirage replied. She fired a weak psychic arrow at Nightshade, who was too busy being cocky to keep her guard up. She slumped to the ground, and tried to deal with the headache that followed. “ Doug, she’s controlling that monster somehow! Think you can find out how while we try to contain it?”

 

“ You can count on me, Mirage!”

 

Once Force Works left, Doug turned towards Nightshade. He looked around, and saw that no one was around. Not surprising, given that Nightshade’s hideout was on the north side of Metro City, where everyone kept to themselves, no matter what.

 

“ Okay, you stupid bitch,” Doug snarled as he cracked his knuckles, “ You’re going to tell me how you control that thing, and you’re going to tell me now.”

 

***

 

“ Move like a butterfly, sting like a bee!” Nova said as he smashed his fist into Black Dragon’s face. Black Dragon tumbled back, farther out into the water, but didn’t fall.

 

“ Don’t get cocky, Nova.” Arsenal warned as he unleashed an optic blast at Black Dragon, “ It’s only you, me, Kymaera, Wiz Kid and Tarene out here, after all.” 

 

“ Blow me.” Nova replied. He did a flying uppercut, knocking Black Dragon even farther back in the water.

 

“ Nova’s beating Puff the color blind dragon like a red headed step child!” Speedball commented from the docks. He, along with the non-flying members of Force Works, had been forced to stand by and watch their friends battle when the battle carried out over the water.

 

“ ‘ey!”

 

“ Sorry, Rahne.”

 

“ I don’t like this.” Dani said.

 

“ Don’t worry, we’ll get our licks in next time.” Speedball said casually.

 

“ It’s not that, Speedball. The fight’s barely started, and Black Dragon’s already divided us.” X-Treme explained. Mirage activated her comm. unit.

 

“ Nova, Kymaera, drive Black Dragon back to the docks, so we can have an effect.”

 

Nova heard her, and turned towards his teammates, “ Op. Trail o’ Tears.” He ordered.

 

“ I’m afraid I cannot allow that.” Black Dragon said. He breathed deep, and unleashed another plume of flame. However, it wasn’t aimed at any member of Force Works. Rather, it was aimed at the water. A huge cloud of steam emerged, engulfing the team.

 

“ My sensor’s are jammed! Must be some kind of magic!” Taki warned, _Lord, I hate magic!_

 

“ My lenses are fogged up!” Nova shouted. He froze in midair, afraid of what would happen if he flew into a teammate. Next to him, Kymaera and Wiz Kid tried desperately to stay on guard.

 

“ Good bye.” Black Dragon sneered. With his magic senses and strong nose, he knew exactly where each member of Force Works was in this pea soup. He spun around, and his tail smashed into Nova, Kymaera and Wiz Kid, knocking them unconscious and out to sea. Wiz Kid had special protocols built into his backpack that detected the danger at the last moment; otherwise he would have been paste.

 

“ Three down.” Black Dragon chuckled. He turned and saw Tarene using her mallet to blow away the steam.

 

“ You hurt my friends! You big meanie!” Tarene threw her mallet at Black Dragon’s head, and knocked him a good two miles out into the ocean. Storm clouds thundered behind her as she became enraged “ How do you like to be hurt!”

 

Tarene followed up the assault by smashing her mallet into Black Dragon’s nose, drawing blood and hurting him more than almost anyone else in the past thousand years.

 

“ You’ll pay for that, you Asgardian tramp!”

 

“ Tarene, let me take a shot!” Arsenal said as he flew towards Black Dragon, in his steel form and bone claws out threateningly.

 

“ Don’t make me laugh, mortal.” Black Dragon reached out and grabbed Arsenal in mid air, and squeezed. He brought the struggling Arsenal up to eye-level “ You are no threat to me.”

 

 _Short memory much?_ Arsenal thought as he fought against the pressure. His steel form leant him more durability than it did strength, but it was being pushed to the limit. Pressing past the pain, Arsenal waited a few seconds until Black Dragon was in the perfect position and fired his most powerful optic blast directly at Black Dragon’s right eye.

 

“ Arrgh!” Black Dragon screamed in pain and threw Arsenal at Tarene. Arsenal hit her directly in the stomach, knocking her out and throwing them both very, very far away. Black Dragon took to the air, determined to take his anger out on the remainder of Force Works.

 

***

 

United Front Office Building, Metro City

 

{{ “ This is Alex Almond reporting for channel five news. Behind me is a crack house that was shut down by the new superhero team called Force Works, who have set up residence in Metro City. This house is just one of dozens…”}}

 

*Click*

 

{{“Bob Priest reporting for channel six news. Force Works have taken Metro City by storm, assisting police in the arrest of at least two hundred drug dealers in one day. Residents had this to say…”}}

 

The camera turned to a young Hispanic woman,

 

{{ “It’s about time someone did something about all the drugs in this city! The police haven’t been able to do anything in years…”}}

 

*Click*

 

{{ “Approval ratings for Force Works’ actions stands at 90%…”}}

 

The man named Gabriel Thorn turned the T.V off, having heard enough about Force Works for one day.

 

“ This is my city.” He growled to on one in particular. Before he had come to Metro City, Gabriel Thorn was a third string drug dealer known as the Grind. He used his minor telepathic powers to force children to run drugs for him. That was until the superheroes Rage and Night Thrasher became involved. They took apart his entire operation with incredible ease. It wasn’t until he was standing in front of a judge facing more charges than he could count did he realize that he was wasting his talents. Thankfully for Thorn, he planned in advance. He had brainwashed an assistant to ‘confessing’ that he was a telepathic mutant and had forced Mr. Thorn to commit all those terrible crimes. That was only seconds before he grabbed an officer’s gun and blew his own brains out, thus making it impossible to confirm or deny. Several months after, Thorn moved to Metro City and began forming his own cult. His telepathic powers allowed him to tell a crowd’s mood and how to best exploit it. So far, his personal cult numbered at four thousand and growing.

 

“ And I should be the only one giving them hope.”

 

*** 

 

 

“ Incoming!” X-Treme shouted as Black Dragon’s foot came crashing down to the spot he had been standing mere seconds before, smashing the dock to splinters. He cursed as he saw that he and Speedball were on one side, and Mirage and Wolfsbane on the other.

 

“ Think you could burn him if you cut him?” Speedball asked.

 

“ Not likely. Too damn big. You want to go head to head with him?” X-Treme asked.

 

“ Not really.” Speedball replied. He bounced a little in the air, and came down towards X-Treme, like they practiced. He landed in X-Treme cupped hands and just as he was starting to rebound, X-Treme heaved him towards Black Dragon.

 

“ Hey, Puff Daddy! Comin’ at ya!” Speedball shouted as he smashed into the side of Black Dragon’s head. To no effect, whatsoever.

 

“ I’ll deal with you in a moment.” Black Dragon said. He looked towards Mirage and Wolfsbane, and scooped up Rahne in his claws with impossible speed and licked his lips,

“ However, I sense this one has some kind of bond with your leader. Her death will teach her not to interfere with Nightshade, or more importantly, to cross the Black Dragon, brother of the Dragon King!”

 

“ Rahne!” Mirage frantically fired her arrows at Black Dragon, trying to think of a plan to get Wolfsbane out of danger.

 

“ I’m nae afraid o’ ye!” Wolfsbane snarled as she raked her claws over the scales on his fist.

 

“ You’ll learn. For the brief seconds that remain of your life, at least.”

 

“ Hey, K’un Lun reject!” A voiced, amplified by a loud speaker, called. Black Dragon turned, drawn by the mention of his homeland. He saw Officer Doug Mathew; standing behind a barricade the police had erected to keep civilians out, “ Yeah,…umm… I’m talking to you!”

 

“ And you’re courting death, mortal.”

 

“ No, you are, if you don’t put that woman down, transform and come here.” Doug replied. He pulled a vial out of his coat pocket, filled with a purple solution, “ Recognize this?”

 

Black Dragon stiffened, but didn’t respond.

 

“ Of course you do. If you don’t take it, you’ll die. It’s how Nightshade kept you on a leash. I destroyed the last of it, so this is all you have left. How long has it been since you had you last booster shot?” Doug held the vial out in a fist, and slowly removed his pinky finger, “ You have to the count of four to put her down, gently, and come here. One…”

 

Black Dragon decided not to test him. He placed Wolfsbane down, and turned towards Doug. He assumed his human form and approached him. Even though he was in his human form, he towered over the medium height Doug.

 

“ This is the last of the formula? Tell me why I shouldn’t just kill you now.”

 

“ Because we can make you more, if you surrender. If you don’t surrender, you’ll die. I give you my word we won’t let you die.” Doug nervously handed Black Dragon the vial. Black Dragon gulped down the contents and threw the vial to the ground.

 

“ Fool! I am rejuvenated! I will…freeee…Night…” Black Dragon’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he slumped to the ground unconscious.

 

“ Man, what did you give him?” Speedball asked.

 

“ Purple Cool-Aid, mostly.” Doug smiled, “ You see, Nightshade was bluffing. He never needed some formula to stay alive. She boasted that she tricked Black Dragon with it. I just slipped a few Mickey’s in it from her drug labs.”

 

Before anyone could say another word, Nova, Kymaera and Wiz Kid returned, soaking wet but ready for action.

 

“ What’d we miss?” Nova asked.

 

“ Officer Mathews saved our ass.” Mirage replied, “ Nova, I need you and Wiz Kid to find Arsenal and Tarene. Black Dragon took them out in the fight.”

 

“ Not a problem,” Wiz Kid said, “ I can track them via their comm. unit. I’m sure they’re both fine.”

 

“ Arsenal’s probably just sitting around on his ass,” Nova muttered under his breath as he flew off with Wiz Kid.

 

As Nova and Wiz Kid left, Wolfsbane walked over to Officer Mathews. As she approached him, she couldn’t quite get that fact that he looked so much like the Doug she had lost so long ago.

 

“ Doug?”

 

“ Oh, hey, Rahne, what’s up?”

 

“ Oh, I wanted t’ thank ye.” She said shyly.

 

“ For what?” He said sarcastically.

 

“ F’r savin’ muh life! That was a verra brave thing ye did, an’ I… jus’ wanted to say thanks.”

 

“ You’re welcome.” He said, “ It’s a good thing he took the Cool-aid when he did, otherwise I would have needed a change of shorts and probably a heart transplant.”

 

Rahne giggled a little at that, “ Well, it’s nae everyday ye stare down a dragon, huh?”

 

“ Nope. Hey, I don’t suppose the dashing knight gets a date after helping the beautiful princess out with the dragon?”

 

“ Excuse me?”

 

“ Sorry, that sounded alot better in my head,” Doug rubbed the back of his head nervously for a moment, “ Are you free Wednesday night?”

 

“ Are you asking me oot on a date?” Rahne asked, almost dumbfounded. She almost couldn’t believe someone was asking her out on a date. She liked Doug sure, but there was something about him that made her wary. She couldn’t place her finger on it, though.

 

***

 

“ Hope you’re happy now.” A new, gruff voice said. Kymaera and Mirage turned to see

Commissioner Stone, with a high yield plasma rifle slung over his back from his days leading Code Blue. It was mostly for effect, but Stone had grown too used to using high tech firepower fall back on a regular pistol.

 

“ Hey, Stone, you know what they say about men who need big guns, right?” Kymaera needled.

 

“ Yes, they kill whoever pisses them off.” He said flatly, “ You realize by taking Nightshade down, you just made a power vacuum in Metro City.”

 

“ I understand why you’re upset, Stone, but…

 

“ No, Mirage. It was my idea to take down Nightshade, and I’ll handle this,” Kymaera turned to Stone, “You don’t not stop a murder just because someone, somewhere will commit murder someplace else. Nightshade was a clear and present danger, supplying drugs to this city and allowing even more to enter the U.S. We took her out. End of discussion.”

 

“Fine. Get something straight. I worked with Code: Blue a long time, and alongside a lot of heroes, so I know how you guys think. Do you think you can solve every problem with a punch to the face?”

 

Mirage’s thoughts started to drift as Kymaera and Stone engaged in, for lack of a better term, an ideological pissing match. For her part, Dani cared more about doing the job than justifying it to anyone other than herself. _Dani?_  

 

Mirage snapped back to reality as Rahne called for her on the special psi-link they shared.

 

_Yes, Rahne?_

_Doug asked me oot on a date. He seems nice enough, but… I’m nae sure. Umm, do ye think I should?_

Mirage glanced towards Stone for a moment, and then towards Doug. He seemed nice and polite, and he did save all their lives. Mirage also knew they had now made an enemy of Stone, and by extension, the entire Metro City police force. Dani was canny enough to know they would need their resources someday. And if Rahne was dating a police officer, it might not be that much of a problem. Besides, Dani knew Rahne was only asking her because she didn’t have the courage to say yes herself. Dani kept those last few thoughts to herself. The psi-link the two young women shared was now completely voluntary. Whatever they wanted shared, was shared. Whatever they didn’t, wasn’t. _Go for it, firetop._

  

 

“ Media’s here, Chief.” Speedball said, “ What do you want to do?”

 

 _Run away_ She quipped to herself. Then she recalled Sawyer’s words to her earlier. Mutants really didn’t have someone independent in the national spotlight to speak for them. And that wasn’t right. “ Let’s… go answer their questions.”

 

Mirage, Kymaera and Speedball strode towards the mass of news vans, preparing to answer all the reporters’ questions. Soon, Wiz Kid and Nova returned with Tarene and Arsenal, and they too talked to the media. Wolfsbane, however, spent the remainder of the evening having a polite conversation with Doug. X-Treme watched this all from the shadows of a nearby ally for a few brief moments, before leaving.

 

 

The End.

 

 

Next: The Undertow return, weaker than ever?!  

 

 

 

Notes:

 

Wiz Kid, Kymaera and Wolfsbane (thru Moira) are all independently wealthy

 

The story behind Black Dragon is far, far too complicated to fully explain here. In fact, he makes Cable’s origin look simple! He first appeared in Power Man and Iron Fist 119 and he was beheaded by Colleen Wing in issue 122. Nightshade resurrected him in between then and Force Works 2. If you’re dying to know more about Black Dragon, check out Black Panther 38-40 by Christopher Priest. Not M2K and not free, but still a damn fine read and worth every penny. 

 

The Grind first appeared in Night Thrasher 19, where he was caught and defeated by Night Thrasher and Rage.

 

 

 

     

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

RIPTIDE Part 1  
Hook, Line and Sucker…

 

Location Classified

 

Somewhere in the Indian Ocean

General Obsidian walked down the hall nervously. He had just received news that he knew wouldn’t be well received. As he walked down the hall to make his report, he thought of ways to sugar coat the news. He walked into the briefing room and swallowed as he saw the hulking form of Protocol, questioning his choice to join the Undertow.

“ General Obsidian reporting, Sir. I am ready to give my report on ‘Project Take Back’.” He said as he saluted, successfully hiding his fear.

“ You may begin.”

“ As you know, our target as associated herself with a new super hero team called Force Works. The members…”

“ I’ve already reviewed the Shield files on most of them,” Protocol interrupted, “ But there are two whom I am not familiar with. The one called X-Treme and the girl called Tarene.”

“ Well, the only data we have on them is data we’ve gathered ourselves. X-Treme possesses super strength and speed on par with the superhero Spiderman. He also has the ability to ‘burn’ someone’s blood when it is oxygenated, though we have found a way to block it. We managed to get a D.N.A sample also, and you would be shocked to learn who this ‘X-Treme’ is related to…”

“ I could care less about his family tree. What about this Tarene?” 

“ Well, this ‘Tarene’ is even more of a mystery. For some reason, our computers say she looks like Thor. There are similarities in their D.N.A, yes, but not appearance…”

“ Get to the point.” Protocol growled.

“ Well, from what we can tell, she’s just as powerful as the so called thunder god but no where as skilled. We have figured out a few ways to take her down.” 

“ Good. Now, as for your plan, it entails an assault on the entire team, is it really necessary? Have you considered ambushing individual members of Force Works as they leave their base?”

“ We have, sir, but that’s not an option. Apparently, Parvenue is smarter than some give him credit for. The Work Tower was secretly an old Shield office. When Shield was shut down for a time, Parvenue bought it and…”

“ And given the number of secret passages built into the Tower and real-estate that Parvenue owns, we’ll never be able to discover how and where they come and go.”

“ Correct. The records on the tower were purged by Nick Fury before the new Shield was started, so that’s no help. We suspect that’s why Parvenue set the team up in Metro City.”

(Nick Fury purged old Shield files in Captain America 251. David) 

“ No doubt. I trust everything set for the ambush?”

“ Yes. Despite the fact that we’ll be facing Force Works head on, we hold all the cards. Force Works maintains a tip line, and we’ve taken advantage of that fact. Over the last two weeks, we’ve been feeding them information about the illegal operations of organizations like the Watchdogs, Ultimatum and various super human terrorist groups. When they went after them like good little heroes…”

“ We were there with scanners and able to observe unnoticed.” Protocol smiled. 

“ Correct. We’ll have the element of surprise and have full knowledge of their abilities and weaknesses. They won’t stand a chance.” 

The General looked at Protocol, who had a look of satisfaction on his face. Which was good, seeing how angry he had been when he lost Namorita as a Solider of Misfortune. He had executed dozens of the senior brass over ‘lapses in judgment’ after she had been rescued. That had certainly been a mistake that the Undertow was paying dearly for now. Without brass the Protocol had executed, the Undertow had no way to recruit more soldiers, and with every strike they made, their power lessened. They were down to a measly five hundred soldiers now.

“ When do we strike?”

“ We’ve fed Force Works information about a terrorist meeting in San Francisco. We’ll launch after Force Works finishes with them.” Obsidian started to leave, but Protocol had one last question.

“ What’s the status of Project Five Chinamen?”

General Obsidian shuddered, “ It’s… ready. Every member of the Undertow has been implanted and altered, as per your order.”

“ Good. Let us hope it does not come to that.”

 

San Francisco

Ned Lathrop, otherwise known as Meteorite, waited anxiously for the meeting to begin. He, along with thirty odd other mutants were members of the self-described mutants rights group called the. Resistance. The group had started out as just another branch of Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, then Mutant Force before, with the help of new leadership; they evolved into a much more serious mutants right group. Of course, to them that translated into attacking anti-mutant organizations like the Friends of Humanity without provocation and other acts that would be considered terrorism by most law biding people, but that wasn’t seen as much of a problem by the membership. They gathered here today to discuss their next strike. All discussion quieted as their leader, a woman known as Mist Mistress, flanked by two other members who acted as her bodyguards, took the stage. She waited a moment before she began speaking,

“ My fellow mutants, in the last several weeks, we have struck great blows for mutant kind! Our attacks on federal buildings have taught the flat scans that we will not be ignored and that we won’t stand for Proposition 66!”

The crowd roared in agreement,

“ But I must know, are we ready for the next step!?” She demanded.

“ Yes!” They all shouted in unison, though in truth none of them knew what that next step would include. 

“ Then we must turn ourselves into the proper authorities and take full responsibility for our actions!” 

There was a long moment of silence before one brave soul asked, “ What the hell are you talking about!”

“ We’ve done all we outside of the law. If we turn ourselves in willingly, we will help mutant rights immeasurably!”

“ Hell with dat!” One member shouted, “ I ain’t goin’ ta jail!” 

“ Yeah, are your own fumes getting’ ta ya?” Another asked.

‘Mist Mistress’ shook her head. “ I tried to do this the easy way, I really did.” She muttered to herself.

“ You didn’t think it would actually work, did ya?” One of her bodyguards asked. By now, the crowd was visibly becoming suspicious of them, and several members were starting to advance. 

“ No, but it was worth a shot.”

The crowd watched in anger the image of their leader Mist Mistress and her two bodyguards disappeared and revealed Mirage, Speedball and Kymaera of Force Works. Mirage pulled her bow taunt and aimed one of her psychic arrows at the crowd “ We can do this two ways. The easy way, or the hard way. Either way, you guys are going down. Which is it going to be?”

“ The hard way.” One member sneered. Just as he said that, the back wall exploded outwards, revealing the rest of Force Works.

“ We’re here to kick butt, and chew peppermint. And we’re all out of peppermint.” X-Treme declared. The Resistance, and a few members of his own team, gave him a curious look.

“ Adam, it’s bubble gum. Kick butt and chew bubble gum.” Arsenal explained.

“ Oh, right.”

“ X-Treme, Wiz Kid, flank left! Wolfsbane, Arsenal, flank right! Tarene, you and I are up the middle!” Nova ordered. Without another word, Force Works attacked the Resistance. Though vastly out numbered, Force Works had the edge in skill and power. Nova cut thru their ranks at superspeed, knocking Resistance members down and leaving them vulnerable to his teammates. X-Treme’s power allowed him to take down groups at a time and Mirage’s arrows allowed her to strike down members regardless of their physical abilities. 

“ I give up! Please, don’t hurt me!” One member, Occult, shrieked as he threw himself on the floor. 

“ Don’t worry little guy, they’ll go easy on ya now that you surrendered.” Speedball explained as he dropped into front of Occult, intent on getting him out of harm’s way.

“ Sucker!” Occult unleashed his most powerful optic blast at Speedball, knocking him back into another group of Resistance members. Speedball smashed into ten members before ricocheting back and clocking Occult.

“ Thanks for the boost, buddy!” Speedball said, “ I’m nice, not stupid.”

Another member of the Resistance, Paralyzer, recognized the problem that faced the Resistance. There were to many Resistance members in too small an area to fight effectively. Force Works could lash out indiscriminately and hit a foe, and they knew it. The only way they would win this would be if they could take this fight out into the open. Paralyzer grabbed another member of the Resistance who had been trying with several other members to hit Nova with his powers. Nova, however, was evading them with ease. 

“ We need an exit!” Paralyzer shouted.

“ If we take down any other walls, this building will collapse on us!” The other Resistance member, known as Blowhard, replied.

“ Then we’ll use the exit they made!” The two members made towards the hole that Force Works created, but saw that Tarene, whom was easily repelling anyone who tried to escape, guarded it. She hadn’t caught sight of Blowhard or Paralyzer yet.

“ I got this.” Paralyzer unleashed a powerful electrical blast at Tarene. Tarene saw it at the last moment, and instinctively raised her mallet to protect herself. To everyone’s surprise, including Tarene, her mallet simply absorbed the electrical energy harmlessly.

“ Let me take a shot.” Blowhard stepped forward and pointed his hands at Tarene. Without warning, two hundred miles per hour winds shot forth and battered Tarene. Tarene, now braced for an attack, was barely pushed back two inches.

“ I can do that too!” Tarene brought her mallet up, and spun it, producing a counter wind that stopped Blowhard’s winds instantly. But she didn’t stop there. She kept spinning her mallet and before she realized it, created a mini tornado that blew Blowhard, Paralyzer, and a dozen other members of the Resistance into the air, thru the back wall of the building and out into the bay. The tornado almost hit Mirage and Wolfsbane as well, but Wolfsbane sensed it coming a split second before it would have hit them and she tackled her friend to the ground.

“ Tarene! I said kid gloves!” Mirage shouted as she picked herself up off the floor. Mirage was about to chew Tarene out for being so careless, despite the fact that they were still in the middle of a battle, but she heard the building creak, and saw it starting to sway. She sprang into action.

“ Team, the building’s about to come down! Maneuver G-Three around Tarene! Bring the house down, under our rules! Kymaera, get out of here and get those who were blown out! Nova, me and Rahne are out!”

Maneuver G-Three isn’t a plan that is by any means complicated. The basic idea is everyone forms together and starts blasting until whatever they want to happen, happens. Arsenal, Speedball, X-Treme and Wiz Kid all made a bee line towards Tarene. Once there, the energy projectors started blasting the roof and walls with optic blasts, plasma blasts from Wiz kid’s guns and kinetic energy. X-Treme and Tarene worked to prevent any Resistance members from leaving.

“ Nova express time.” Nova grabbed a strap built into Wolfsbane’s and Mirage’s costumes and picked them up. Nova then flew the two women out by the hole made by Tarene’s tornado and swung around, landing into front of the building that was housing the meeting. Once he set the two young women down, the building finally collapsed onto itself.

“ Well, that’s one building that’ll never harbor terrorists again.” Nova said, “ How are you going to explain to Sawyer that we intently demolished that building?”

“ I’ll let you know when I figure it out myself.” Mirage replied, I’ll probably never hear the end of it

“ Do ye think everyone’s all right?”

They looked towards the rubble of the building, and saw that their teammates were none the worse for wear, having been protected by Speedball’s force field seconds before the building came down. 

“ Nova, go help Kymaera. We’ll see if the others need a hand.”

“ We’re fine, as is the so called ‘Resistance’.” Wiz Kid said, anticipating Mirage’s questions, “ Our barrage made sure that when the roof came down, the pieces weren’t large enough to kill or seriously injure anyone. What’s more, the Resistance had a few force field projectors among them, so they took refuge around them, so all they suffered were, relatively, minor injures.” 

“ So, where are they?” 

“ There.” Wiz Kid pointed towards a back corner of rubble just as it started to shift, and reveal two dozen members of the Resistance. Unlike force Works, though, their uniforms were cut, and there were deep gashes in their skin. “ We surrender.” One member said weakly.

“ Smart move.” Kymaera complimented as she and Nova returned with the Resistance members who had been blown out into the bay. The two lovers had found a fishing net and used it to gather up the way ward members. “ Bleeding all over your foe is unlikely to win a fight.”

Mirage turned towards Tarene, “ I need to talk to you.” She growled. Tarene cringed at the tone, but before Mirage could continue, Arsenal got between them.

“ Let me handle this, Mirage.”

“ Why should I?” She demanded.

“ Because I have some experience teaching, and I know you’ll just yell at her, and that won’t get us anywhere.”

“ Fine, why not?” Mirage sighed. She didn’t have the patience for Tarene right now. She turned to the rest of the team, “ Okay, let’s dig the rest of these losers out.” 

“ Hey Rahne, is Dani always this…high-strung?” Speedball whispered.

“ O’ course nae,” She replied, “ She goes t’ sleep e’ery now an’ then.”

I heard that!

Arsenal pulled Tarene, who looked like she was about to break down and cry, aside.

“ I’m…sorry…I just wanted to help and… now Dani and everyone hates me.” She sobbed.

“ No, she’s just a little high strung,” Arsenal placed his hand on Tarene’s shoulder to reassure her, “ And she doesn’t hate you, kiddo. None of us to.”

“ Promise?”

“ Promise. You just need to be a little more careful, Tarene. When we fight someone, we want to subdue them with as little force as possible.”

“ Then, why did we allow a building to fall on them?” she asked innocently. Arsenal rubbed the back of his head as he tried to think of a decent answer.

“ Umm, there are always exceptions to the rule. You just need to learn to use less force.”

 

Location, Secret 

As Paul Pierre Duval, otherwise known as the Grey Gargoyle, regained consciousness, he struggled to comprehend what was happened. One moment, he was sitting in his cell at the Vault, stewing over his defeat. He had blinked, and wound up in what appeared to be some kind of underground palace. The walls were lined with the finest art works and sculptures. And standing in front of him were three of the oddest individuals Duval had ever seen. One man, carrying an oddly shaped bow, wore blue spandex and wore a purple turban. Next to him was standing a black woman wearing a Hawaiian robe. Finally, next to her was standing a raven-haired man, wearing what Duval somehow recognized as a Cimmerian armor, and had with eyes that chilled Duval’s soul.

“ Welcome back to the world of the living. I am named Marduk, of the Everlasting.” The raven-haired man said.

“ What do you scum bags want with me? You better tell me, or so help me…”

“ Scum bags? Making demands? Is that anyway to address those who released you from your bondage?”

“ Yeah, thanks. Now, give me one reason not to tear each of you limb from limb.” Grey Gargoyle warned as he stepped forward. Marduk stepped forward to meet him.

“ I’ll give some very convincing reasons,” He replied, his eyes locked with the Grey Gargoyle, “ I freed you from prison to fulfill my agenda. I have brought you into my home, my place of power to do so. Do you honestly think that I would do something so foolish if I did not have some way to keep you in line?”

Duval gulped, and Marduk knew he got the message. “Now, if you’ll follow me, I’ll tell you everything you need to know.”

Marduk led the Grey Gargoyle down a hall decorated with ancient treasures. Marduk’s companions walked behind the Gargoyle, carefully watching him.

“ As I understand it Mr. Duval, you once lusted after the secret of immortality.”

“ Yes, that’s right. What’s it to you?”

“ Because I intend to give it to you.” Marduk explained as they reached twin golden doors. Marduk threw them open to reveal a lavish well, filled with a bubbling green substance. “ This, is the Genesis Well.”

“ Is it…”

“ The fountain of eternal youth of legend? No, but it may as well be. It can grant a mortal power and eternal youth.”

“ What’s the catch?”

Marduk turned to the Grey Gargoyle, and produced a picture of Tarene from inside his coat, “ This young woman is our property. She was taken from us by Force Works and given sanctuary. In return for an increase in your powers and immortal life, you will kill Force Works and return her to us.”

“ Sounds simple.” 

“ Oh, there’s more.” Marduk smiled.

“ What?”

“ Have you heard of Metro city?”

“ Yeah, it’s a dump. Waste of space. Why, is that where Force Works is?”

“ Correct. A dump thru which hundreds of millions of drug went thru. That was, until Nightshade, the local drug dealer, was shut down. The city is ripe for a new drug lord, I should think.” 

Grey Gargoyle smiled. Power, eternal life, and more money than he could ever know what to do with. But he knew what the downside was already. “ This Genesis Well thing is going to hurt a lot, isn’t it?”

“ Oh, immeasurably. But keep your mind focused on the end goal.” Marduk said as he pushed the Gargoyle into the well. Duval screamed as his body touched the water. His flesh felt like it was peeling off and his bones felt as though they were on fire. If he were of a more spiritual bent, he would have sworn that his soul was on fire.

“ A mortal in the well. You realize that…”

“ Its power will kill him in two short decades, I know, Aqhat. Only mortals pure of heart may bath in the well. Still, he will live long enough to serve us.” 

“ And none of them will follow us.” The Hawaiian goddess referred to as Papa said, “ how long before we fish him out?”

“ Three hours.”

“ It only takes four minutes for the well to permanently affect a mortal, though. You are being overly careful, Marduk.” 

“ Yes, that sounds better.”

“ Better than what?”

“ Than me saying I still get off on the screams of a French man.”

 

“ While the Resistance may try to pass itself off as a mutant’s rights group, they are little more than a group of thugs who don’t speak for mutant kind. We received am anonymous tip about their operations.” Mirage said, explaining why Force Works had targeted the Resistance, “ We’re glad we were able to stop them before they were able to harm anyone else, human or mutant. Next question?”

“ Peter Cannon for D.C Exposed. My sources tell me that Force Works was working together with the Resistance and that you turned them in when they refused to recognize your authority.”

Mirage glared at the reporter. Underneath her mask, her face was twisted with rage. Normally, she wouldn’t even dignify that comment with a response. But, as leader of Force Works, a very public super hero team, it fell on her to answer any questions from reporters.

“ Those sources are lying, Mr. Cannon. We received a tip about the Resistance, and acted on it. That’s the extent of our relationship. Next question?”

“ So there’s some kind of relationship between Force Works and this terrorist organization?” Cannon continued. Mirage ignored him, and glanced at Kymaera. Kymaera gently pulled the bigoted reporter aside, and the other reporters continued with their questions.

“ How did you find out about the Resistance?”

“ How large is the membership?”

“ Is it true you’re seeing X-Treme?”

Mirage rolled her eyes, and answered all the questions as politely as she could. Why can’t they just attack me? THAT I could deal with

Nova, her second in command, didn’t feel that way though. Despite the tough and sometimes down right racist questions the reporters were asking, he couldn’t help my smile.

“ Nova, why do you think it is other heroes have chosen to eschew actively supporting the mutant agenda?”

“ I’m not sure what agenda other than equality you’re referring’ to,” Nova answered, “ And I don’t pretend to speak for other heroes, just myself. Some of my best friends are mutants, and I just got tired of seeing ‘em disrespected.”

“ Nova, why haven’t other members of the New Warriors joined Force Works?”

“ Nova, is it true that you tried to kill your teammate Night Thrasher?”

“ Nova, what does Namor think of your relationship with his cousin?”

It’s about time I got this He thought to himself as the flash bulbs flashed in his face. 

“ Mr. Cannon, I don’t suppose you know what slander and libel are?” Kymaera asked.

“ Don’t threaten me, you mutie lover. You won’t censor me! I have my sources, and they…”

Kymaera squeezed Cannon’s shoulder slightly. Even so, with her superhuman strength, she came within inches of damaging it, and Cannon quickly shut up “ You are free to print… whatever you want. But, I know just as well you do that your sources are non-existent. Force Works won’t stand for slander. We’ll hold you accountable for every word you say about us. Think about that.”

Kymaera released his shoulder and Cannon just glared at her in impotent fury. He hated mutants, and those who supported them, with a passion. But he didn’t want to get sued either.

“ ‘Nita, Mirage is finishing up the Press Conference and we’re ready to leave.” Wiz kid reported over their comm. link. Kymaera blew Cannon a sarcastic kiss and took to the air towards the Stealth Wing.

“ Force Works will issue a full press release on today’s incident tomorrow, thank you. That will be all.” Mirage turned away from the reports and towards the Stealth Wing. Once she was inside, she sat down in her seat and pulled out a laptop. She started to type up a report for Sawyer, but just couldn’t do it. She rubbed her head, feeling a headache coming on. I didn’t recall signing up for this Dani thought bitterly. 

Never saw yuirself as a diplomat, eh Dani? Rahne asked over the special psi-link they shared.

I’m diplomatic when I need to be. I’m just not used to dealing with the media so freakin’ much. Everytime a mutant farts; they have to get my opinion on the smell. Not to mention Sawyer breathing down my neck Dani replied, being the team leader was never this hard with the New Mutants. At least all I had to deal with there was Magneto. That reminds me, how was your first date with Doug?

Rahne chuckled slightly Ye have been busy, Dani! I’ve had five date wit’ him, nae countin’ him showin’ me around the city, and they’ve been wonderful. 

Five dates already? Dani asked, shocked. She knew she had been busy organizing Force Works, making training schedules and getting the team security clearances and such, but she was surprised she hadn’t known Rahne was going steady with someone until now Aren’t you taking it a little fast?

Ye know I’m nae fast Rahne scolded, And I’m nae about tae be cooped up in the Work Place all the bloody, and yuir always busy, so I go see Doug...

I’m sorry Rahne, I’ve just been so busy. Haven’t you made any friends at the church where you volunteer?

Nae when I’m running off to save the world every ten minutes Rahne replied. An it’s all right. It’s nae yuir fault ye have t’ do so much, after all

“ Man, we never got this kinda press when I was with the Warriors.” Speedball said as he picked up a Newsweek he had brought with him. Naturally, the main story was about Force Works.

“ That’s because you didn’t have Grace and Tumbait doing your P.R.” Wiz Kid replied, “ I wonder if I had them while I was doing solo work if I would have been a house hold name by now.”

“ Wait a minute, you did solo work?” Speedball asked, “ How come I never heard about you before I signed up?”

“ Mainly because I worked on the West Coast, and the villains I fought were pure third rate. Losers like Contract and Quota.”

“ Who?”

“ Exactly. I did it to pass the time, mostly. I did so for about a year before Parnevue approached me about joining Force Works. Seemed challenging enough.”

“ So you joined only for the challenge?” Nova asked, “ Hardly the most noble reason to sign up for this out fit.”

“ Is my reason for joining any worse than yours?” Wiz Kid replied. Nova didn’t reply, and by mutual consent, they dropped the subject. 

“ I’m telling you, you should either get your clichés right, or just not bother to use them.” Arsenal said from the co-pilot’s seat on the Stealth Glider, “ I mean, it’s not like you need them to scare people, all the weapons you carry.”

“ Nobody’s perfect.” X-Treme replied, “ Besides, I’ve been in enough fights to know that clichés are more helpful in a fight than most people give them credit for. They work, otherwise, they wouldn’t be clichés.”

“ I’ll take your word on it, Adam. Leave it to you to analyze every nuance of a fight.” 

Before X-Treme could reply, a red light came on the consul. He activated the plane’s radio and listened intently “ Chief, we have a problem.” 

“ What is it?”

“We’re getting a distress call from Texas. Some bast’jaks called Hydra are attacking an air field.”

“ Are we there yet?” Mirage asked. X-Treme swiftly changed course to the new coordinates. Within minutes, Force Works was within eyesight of the airfield. Oddly enough, the airfield was small for an airfield, only about the size of two football fields with old, rusted metal hangars. It was obvious that it was in disrepair and all but abandoned. Force Works could make out a group of about fifty Hydra agents concentrating their fire one hangar in particular. They were being driven back by automatic fire, but it was only a matter of time before they got what they were after. 

“ Talk about the middle of no where.” Speedball commented.

“ X-Treme, open the drop hatch. Nova, Kymaera, you’ll carry me and Rahne to the ground. X-Treme, set the Glider down away from the here and join us.” 

“ Oh, I hate this bit.” Wolfsbane said as Kymaera took hold of the strap on the back of her costume.

The doors opened and Force Works quickly exited the Stealth Glider. X-Treme pulled away and landed the Stealth Wing about a mile from the scene of the battle. He rushed out of the cockpit and towards the battle at top speed. Even tough it took him all of two minutes and a half to do all this, it was too late.

“ Hydra is supposed to be better than this.” Wiz Kid commented as he looked over the defeated Hydra agents. “They practically defeated themselves, fighting so poorly and uncoordinated. Not like them at all.”

“ Aren’t we supposed to always win?” Tarene asked. Wiz Kid ignored her.

“ Sorry we didn’t leave you any, X-Treme,” Speedball said, “ These guys had glass jaws like you wouldn’t believe.”

“ I could care less,” X-Treme replied, “ Any idea why these Hydra men attacked some random air field?”

“ They were after a secret weapon we were transporting.” A man explained as he approached Force Works from the hangar that had been under attack mere minutes beforehand. He was wearing an old suit, but seemed to have an air of authority about him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an F.B.I badge, “ Name’s William Peaks, F.B.I. You youngsters are Force Works, right?”

“Correct. Why were you transporting a weapon in such an…understaffed manner?” Wiz Kid asked.

“ We were hoping to stay under the radar, young man. Tell me, do you have a plane?”

“ How do you think we got out here? Why do you ask?”

“ Because, Nova, isn’t it? Force Works has just been drafted to help with Nation Security. It’s very important that the weapon reach a secure location as soon as possible.”

“We’re not your lackeys.” Mirage hissed, “ We’re willing to wait until the local P.D’s get here, but Force Works aren’t glorified delivery boys.”

“ Fine. But you’ll have to be the one to explain to the Joint Chiefs, and the media,” He added, “Why their plans were delayed.”

Mirage scowled, “ Kymaera, Speedball, Wolfsbane, secure this weapon, whatever it is and get it to the Stealth Wing. The rest of us are going to do one last sweep to make sure there aren’t any Hydra goons lurking about.”

“ This way.”

“ So, Mulder, what is this weapon exactly?” Speedball asked, “ And don’t say it’s classified, ‘cause the public has a right to know!”

“ It’s a sonic weapon. I won’t say more than that.” He replied as they entered the hangar. Speedball was a little taken back by the fact that the agent had actually told as much as he did. Inside the hangar was what Speedball guessed were more federal agents, standing around a small passenger airplane. The agents had burn marks on their suits, and were holding their guns at their sides.

“ Wait a bloody second,” Wolfsbane said suddenly.

“ What is it, young lady?”

“ Ye were fightin’ Hydra off jus’ moments ago. Ye smell like roses, yuir heart rate’s barely spiked, an’ I don’ smell any gun powder in the air.” Wolfsbane started to eye Mr. Pearl, knowing she was on to something, “An’ yuir name. That’s a British name, and yuir nae British.” 

“Umm… This place smells pretty bad, so that might be why you don’t smell gunpowder. As for our heart rate, you get used to this sort of thing after a while.” Another agent suggested, but that wasn’t what Kymaera heard. Sometime back, Kymaera was a prisoner of a criminal organization known as the Undertow. She was enslaved for a full year, a puppet as they enforced their conservative agenda on the world. But Kymaera hardly wasted her time angsting over her fate. Rather, she studied her captors and committed every detail, every nuance about them and their members to memory. So to her, who she heard was, “ Commander B.F Skinner?”

“ How did you… Oh, hell.” The man replied. He hand shot into his pocket and he activated his radio, “ We’ve been exposed! Repeat, exposed! Launch! Now!”

Kymaera activated her own comm. unit just as quickly “ The Undertow is here! We walked into a…”

 

“…TRAP!”

Mirage and Arsenal rushed out of the hangar they had been checking the second they heard Kymaera over the comm. and ran smack into a group of paramilitary soldiers who had just teleported onto the tarmac in front of them. Worse, the co-called Hydra agents were getting up, and looked like they were on the same side as the soldiers who had just teleported in. Mirage took a split second to aim, and unleashed powerful psychic arrows at the new arrivals. However, the soldiers were completely unaffected by them. They leveled their weapons at Mirage and Arsenal. 

“ Shit!” Mirage leapt out of the way in time to miss being hit by automatic gunfire, and Arsenal took to the air. She pulled two arrows out of her quiver and shot the two closest men in the shoulder. She wasn’t Hawkeye, but she was still had damn fine aim. She kept moving, never them a clean shot. But the soldiers were damn persistent, and she had little cover.

 

“ …TRAP!” 

The instant Nova heard those words; he shot out of the hangar he had been inspecting at break neck speeds and towards Kymaera. He lost her once to these bastards, and he wasn’t about to let that happen again. But he smashed into a force field that had been erected around the hangar she had entered. Nova began pounding on it, hoping to either absorb it’s energy or break it, but he had no effect.

“ You’re wasting your time. That shield was designed to hold the Hulk.” A voice informed him. Nova turned around to see about a half dozen lightly armored soldiers aiming high tech energy rifles at him. Nova charged at them, grabbing the leader by the neck,

“ How do I turn that… arrgh!” Nova recoiled in pain. The man’s armor had an electrical shock that played havoc with Nova’s energy absorption powers. The man aimed his rifle at Nova,

“ Surrender now, and you won’t be hurt.”

“ Let’s see how you like your own medicine!” Nova unleashed the electrical energy he absorbed from the leader back at the man, but it had no effect. Nova flew up into the air, dodging energy blasts, but he couldn’t get far. He was still groggy from the first shock, and half the soldiers were aiming high to keep him close to the ground, while the other half aimed low, hoping to catch him in the cross fire. It took all his concentration to keep from being hit.

Damn it, how did these guys know my weakness?

 

“…TRAP!”

X-Treme sprinted out into the open as soon as he heard that, and ran smack into a dozen heavily armed soldiers. Without a moment’s pause, X-Treme pulled a dagger out from his belt, and charged. With skill that defied his age, he weaved between the soldiers and cut them ever so slightly with his dagger while slipping past them. 

“Burn!”

X-Treme activated his power to burn an opponent’s blood when oxygenated. But nothing happened. It took X-Treme one second to realize this, before he jumped into the middle of the group, willingly surrounding himself. He wasn’t being cocky. He knew the soldiers would hesitate to fire at him for fear of hitting each other. And the last thing you wanted to do against X-Treme was hesitate. X-Treme lashed out, and in less time than it took to tell, the soldiers were lying on the ground, utterly defeated. X-Treme moved to help his teammates, but before he could, another figure appeared out of nowhere. He was the reclaimed Soldier of misfortune known as Cut, and was armed with dozens of swords and his left hand a metal claw.

“ Man after my own heart, eh?” X-Treme asked, “ Let’s see what you have up your sleeve.”

His eye flared, and X-Treme activated the energy he used to burn his foes, even though Cut wasn’t bleeding. The energy X-Treme used could also be used to evaluate his foe, to tell X-Treme what abilities or powers they had. This power made it pretty hard to surprise X-Treme. And what X-Treme learned about Cut took a lot of the fight out of him.

“ Roosha…”

 

Arsenal, for his part, found no refuge in the air. The soldiers fired about half a dozen rockets at him before he got twenty feet into the air. He barely dodged them, and saw the missiles turned in midair and come right back at him. Arsenal blasted three of them with his optic blasts and barely dodged the rest. They came within a hair’s breath of him, and when they did, Arsenal realized how these things were tracking him.

The missiles are armed with magnetics! These guys came prepared! Arsenal glanced down towards Mirage, and saw that they were getting closer to tagging her, while Mirage’s arrows did little to even slow them down. Arsenal gritted his teeth, and formed a plan in his mind. It would be painful, but it was their only hope. He swooped down towards the soldiers, followed by the missiles that were tracking him. He transformed into his steel form and smashed into the group that had been trying to kill Mirage from behind. The missiles that had been tracking Arsenal then made contact, exploding with incredible power, knocking Arsenal out and seriously wounding the soldiers he flown into.

“ Bobby!” Mirage ran to her friend’s side to see if he was all right. She saw that his chest was rising and falling steadily, so he would be okay. He had a healing factor, after all. But his sacrifice had bought her precious time to evaluate the situation. Mirage scanned the tarmac and saw that the rest of Force Works was in dire straights. Nova was stuck battling foes that wore light body armor that conducted electricity, making him unable to touch them. Wiz Kid was being hammered with sonics, and though his backpack was protecting him, he was being kept on the defensive. Tarene was being double teamed by what looked like two superhumans and four people wearing jet-black armors that looked slightly like the golden Avenger Iron Man. Dani recognized the armor from Shield files as Iron Monger armors. Dani quickly scanned the battlefield, looking for one member of Force Works in particular that could help turn the tide, and she found him fighting another man armed to the teeth with swords himself.

“ Fight this!” X-Treme implored as he ducked another strike from the new Soldier of Misfortune known as Cut. If Cut heard him, he certainly didn’t show it. He sliced at X-Treme again, and again connected with nothing but empty air. X-Treme pulled out his sword, and held it in front of him defensively, “ I can see the implants that control you and can tell from your body language that you’re being forced to do this! I know what it’s like to be a slave, fight it, please!”

Cut replied by bringing his sword slicing down at X-Treme. X-Treme caught the blade between his own double bladed sword and knocked Cut’s sword aside, “ You don’t have to be a slave!”

Cut was about to attack again, but was struck by a psychic arrow and fell to the ground, unconscious. 

“ No time for sympathy for the devil,” Mirage said, “ We’re getting our butts handed to us!”

X-Treme didn’t bother to tell Mirage he couldn’t burn anyone. He knew she already knew, so “ What’s the plan?” 

“ Help the others, get thru that force field and then dig in.”

 

This isn’t fair! This isn’t right! Those were the only thoughts that went thru Tarene’s mind as she was assaulted by a barrage that would lay another other member low long ago. Two members of the Soldiers of misfortune were attacking her senses while four men in Iron Monger armors pounded on her. Wrong, who had the power to distort reality, and Black, who could increase gravity exponentially, assaulted her senses. It was effective at first, but Tarene soon had had enough. An inexplicable rage suddenly overtook her.

“ Raagh!” The snap was almost audible. Tarene’s eyes turned blood shot, and she smashed her mallet into the ground, sending out a small earthquake that not only knocked everyone, including her nearby teammates, off their feet, but also would be felt for miles in every direction. This temporarily stopped Wrong and Dark’s assault, and Tarene didn’t waste a moment. She struck out at the two, but barely connected with a glancing blow. But it was still enough to knock them very, very far away. Tarene then turned towards to men in the Iron Monger armors, and leaped at them with animalistic fury. She grabbed the wrist of one Iron Monger, swung him like a baseball bat and smashed him into another one.

“ Sonics!” One Iron Monger ordered. The two remaining Iron Mongers activated the high pitch speakers built into the armor and directed at Tarene. 

“ Cheaters!” She shouted as the sonics drilled into her brain. She instinctively caused a thunderstorm to form, the white noise of the thunder making the sonics easier to bear. Tarene charged the closest Iron Monger, intent on ripping it apart with her bare hands. Unfortunately for her, the man inside the armor was a skilled fighter. He feinted to the right, and when Tarene moved to intercept, he caught her with a left hook that drove her chin into a viscous right uppercut.

“ You shouldn’t lead with your chin, little girl.” He said as he drove his fist into Tarene’s face, knocking her back. Tarene didn’t reply as she got back up. She simply wiped the blood from her chin and started to advance on the man. In her rage, she failed to notice that the other men in armor had recovered. One stationed himself behind her.

“ Football!” He ordered. He blasted the back of Tarene’s knees with his repulsar blasts, forcing her down. The Iron Monger in front of her ran towards her, and let loose a kick that would have put an N.F.L place kicker to shame. Only something was wrong. His foot had stopped. 

“ What the hell…”He looked down and saw Tarene’s fingers embedded in his boot. At first, he was shocked. His armor was strong enough to fight the likes of Iron Man and Thing to a standstill. And here this young woman was, catching a kick powerful enough to destroy a battleship without breaking a sweat. Then he started to become very, very afraid. Tarene started to squeeze the boot harder, and the man inside the Iron Monger armor decided to practice the better part of valor and activated the boot jets. Just as he did that, Tarene swung him towards his comrade, taking two of her foes out of the fight. Tarene didn’t make any witty comment or flippant remark as she prepared to attack the last two men in armor. She just snarled, and seemingly learning nothing from the first time, charged. 

 

Wolfsbane ducked under the oversized right fist that came crashing towards her. She leaped back, trying to put some distance between her and the Soldier of Misfortune called Right. Even as she landed, she ducked to the side to avoid being blasted by the optic blasts of another Soldier known as Light.

Don’ know how long I ken keep this up! She thought to herself dodged another Soldier called Fast. Kymaera and Speedball had already been defeated out by their foes. The majority of the Soldiers of Misfortune had teleported directly into the hangar and knew whom to attack. Dry had connected to Kymaera with her dehydrating touch before she could react, and Light’s blasts cut right thru Speedball’s force field, knocking him out. The regular agents had used a sonic weapon on Wolfsbane, hoping to overload her sensitive hearing so that the other soldiers could take her down. And it almost worked. But Wolfsbane had worked with Banshee and Siryn enough to be able to withstand high pitched sonics long enough to destroy the weapon, and she had been on the defensive ever since.

“ Ye don’ have tae do this!” Wolfsbane implored the Soldiers. Kymaera had told her about them, and Wolfsbane’s heart truly went out to these poor souls. She had been a slave once herself, and she knew their pain. However, none of the Soldiers replied. In truth, they couldn’t. Their bodies were like machines, which existed for one reason. They kept up their attack, with little success. Each attack was a hair off or a split second too late. Thankfully for Wolfsbane, the Soldiers of Misfortune weren’t very coordinated, so her speed and agility allowed her to stay one step ahead of them, but that was about all she could do against them. Having been trained by Charles Xavier, Magneto, Cable and Nightcrawler, she was more formidable than she looked, but she also knew it was only a matter of time before they caught her. 

“ I ken help ye if ye jus’ try to stop what yuir doing!” She pleaded. Wolfsbane glanced worriedly at Kymaera. She didn’t look like the vibrant young woman Rahne had befriended in recent weeks. She looked more like a skeleton with blue flesh draped over it. If Kymaera went any longer without water…

-Thoom!-

Suddenly, the ground up heaved, knocking everyone on their ass. The Soldier of Misfortune called Fast, once known as the mercenary Sparrow and could fly, swooped in and grabbed Wolfsbane by the neck. 

“ Nae!” Wolfsbane struggled to get free as Fast’s finger’s tightened around her neck and squeezed. Wolfsbane raked her claws across Fast’s face, attempting to get free. Even as she did this, Wolfsbane could see the pity in Fast’s eyes. Wolfsbane’s last thoughts were to pray for death rather than be made a mindless machine of another hatemonger.

 

“ Come on, what’s your phase variance?” Wiz Kid asked the force field that was surrounding the hangar the other three members of Force Works were trapped in. He was being protected by Mirage, Nova and X-Treme, who were holding the Undertow off. Nova tore up several large chunks of the tarmac and used them as a make shift barrier for Wiz Kid and Mirage while he and X-Treme got down and dirty.

“ Anything?” Mirage asked

“ Nothing yet…oh hell…get back!” Wiz kid shouted. He formed his backpack into a rocket pack, grabbed X-Treme and Mirage and darted away from the hangar moments before it was consumed in a huge fireball. Before Force Works could even take this all in, every member of the Undertow, including the faux Hydra members, were teleported away. After her foes disappeared, Tarene’s rage evaporated like dew in the morning sun, and she asked the obvious question,“ Where… did they go?”

“ No…” Nova uttered as he looked at the destroyed remnants of the hangar his teammates had been in moments before, “ NOO!” 

Nova flew into the remains and started digging furiously, throwing debris every which way, “ No way, no fucking way!” 

Mirage, Wiz Kid, Tarene and X-Treme simply stood there, watching, their heads hung low.

“ What the hell are you idiots waiting for?” Nova demanded, “ A god damn invitation?”

“ You know as well as I do that what your doing is futile.” Wiz Kid answered

“ But you got scans, right?”

Wiz Kid looked away,

“ You little shit…” Nova was in his face in an instant, “ Why weren’t you scanning? What are you good for, you little toad!”

“ Nova, back off…”

Nova grabbed Wiz Kid by the collar and pulled him closer, “ Or what?”

Wiz Kid created an electric gun and pressed it under Nova’s chin, “ Or I’ll send an energy pulse thru your body designed to cripple your nervous system and leave you in a state Christopher Reeves would pity. I will not be manhandled by you. I will say this once. Back. Off.”

Both eyed each other, neither willing to stand down,

“ That’s enough!” Mirage shouted as she and X-Treme pushed the two apart, “ Nova, this is getting us no where and you know it. Now calm the fuck down, or I’ll lay you out myself!”

Nova was about to reply, but then thought the better of it. He took a deep breath and sighed, “ I’m sorry Taki, I shouldn’t have grabbed you like that. It’s just that I lost ‘Nita to these bastards before…”

“ You’re right,” Wiz Kid said, interrupting him, “ You shouldn’t have assaulted me. But what’s done is done. I wish I had some better news for you, for us all, but I don’t.”

“ You didn’t get a single scan, did you?”

“As the saying goes, I have good news and bad news. When the Undertow attacked, they saturated this entire area with negatively ionized particles. It obstructed my long range scans and before I could properly compensate, they were gone.” 

“ And the good news?”

“ I did get some scans. My scans detected what I believe to be the Undertow’s frequency for communication. If we could find them again, I’m certain I could track it back to their base.”

“ So, how do we find them again?” Tarene asked.

“ I…don’t know.” Wiz Kid replied, “ This entire operation was skillfully crafted, we won’t find any clues here. I wouldn’t be surprised if that name that fake F.B.I Agent gave us was intentionally chosen to lead us down a false path.”

“ Great, basically, we’re screwed, aren’t we?” Mirage asked, “ We don’t know where they are, don’t know where they might strike next, and with every minute that passes, our chances of finding our friends decreases.” 

“ Yes,” Wiz Kid sighed, “ I wouldn’t know where to start.”

“ Well, it’s a good thing I have an idea, eh lad?” A new voice asked. Force Works turned as one and saw a red haired man, well built man wearing a shirt that read ‘Save the Rainforest’.

“ You…you’re that…” Nova struggled to remember the man’s name, “ That Project Earth guy!”

“ The name’s Michael Shauneghann. And I have a proposition for you fine people.” 

 

NEXT: What does Project Earth want from Force Works and how will they react? What exactly is Project Five Chinamen(if you can’t figure this out, there’s no hope for you) and how will it change one member of Force Works forever? Be here as life and death decisions are made as Riptide concludes!


	4. Chapter 4

RIPTIDE PART 2  
Under Pressure

 

 

The Story thus far: The Undertow, for reasons thus far unknown, launched an attack on Force Works. Using subterfuge, cunning and preparation, they managed to capture and escape with Kymaera, Wolfsbane and Speedball. Force Works was left no way to follow them, until, that is, Michael Shauneghann of Project Earth showed up, offering a deal. Which brings us to…

 

Three thousand feet above the Lone Star State

Michael Shauneghann leads what could be called a charmed life. As a member of the radical environmental organization Project Earth, he’s seen a lot. Illegal dumping, acres of trees being cleared inside of day, environmental crimes kind of stuff. One of the last things he ever expected to see first hand was the entire state of Texas from outside of a plane. Seeing all those houses, farms and specks of people truly drove home how truly insignificant mankind was compared to the immortal mother earth.

“ I said, tell me what you know, here and now, or I’ll drop you!” A voice shouted at him. Michael’s attention snapped back the matter at hand. The man called Nova was holding him aloft and threatening to kill him if he didn’t reveal the information he had on the Undertow.

“ Lovely view, isn’t it?” He asked, not even acknowledging Nova, “ And mate, stop the theatrics, okay? We both know you aren’t going to kill him. That wouldn’t get you anywhere.”

“ I’m not above torture.” Nova snarled.

“ Oh, I’m sure you’re not. But I’ve been tortured by the Israelis without breaking.” Michael pulled a stick of gum out of his pocket, unwrapped it and placed it in his mouth. He then flicked the wrapper in Nova’s face, “ So I doubt I’ll even notice what you do to me. So why don’t you set me done on terra firma and we can talk about this in a polite fashion? Otherwise we could be here all day, and the info I have comes with an expiration date.”

Nova, with considerable effort, swallowed his pride and started to descend back to the small airfield where the rest of Force Works was waiting.

“ Anything?” Mirage asked. Nova just shook his head.

“ Don’t act all surprised luv, you know as well as I do that you wouldn’t harm me.”

“ So what do you want from us?”

“ Me? I want to help you take down the Undertow.”

“ Out of the kindness of your heart, no doubt.” Wiz Kid said, “ What’s the catch?”

“ I’ll get to that in a moment. First, I need to tell you fine people what exactly you’re up against.”

“ What does it matter?” Tarene asked absently, “ Just tell where they are!”

“ Because knowing what the hell you’re dealing with always helps. The Undertow knew what the hell they were dealing with, after all. They came prepared and kicked your arses.”

“ We already know what the Undertow are about.” Nova said, “ They’re a fringe, paramilitary organization who like to impose their ultra conservative agenda on the world. I researched them for a freakin’ year looking for ‘Nita.”

“ That’s right, but there’s more to the story. The Undertow started out as a Black-Ops weapons testing organization. Any weapons the yanks thought were too dangerous, or too crude to use effectively were given to the Undertow, along with the regular toys. The Undertow would then use and refine the hardware. That way, the military knew what weapons were bunk, and what weapons would be good for field use. The Soldiers of Misfortune? All failed attempts to recreate the super soldier formula, and all the test subjects were blokes who, thru one way or another, got to close to the Undertow. The sub-dermal communication system they use? It’ll be proposed for Delta Force use in six months. The teleporters the Undertow uses? It’s the basis for Shield’s Hermes system. The special subs they use? They will be ‘designed’ in two years and go into mass production for the Navy in three.”

“ Clever.” X-Treme said, “ The Undertow allows the U.S military to test hardware in combat situations years before they would be allowed normally. Must save them millions in research and development.” 

“ That’s impossible. No one would arm fanatics like the Undertow.” Arsenal, who had recovered by now, stated as he shook his head in disbelief. He had served in the Air National Guard, and he simply couldn’t believe that anyone in the military would condone what the Undertow was doing.

“ Well, the good news is that the corruption isn’t very wide spread. The majority of Undertow's top brass are Cold War warriors who had a hard time accepting they weren’t needed anymore. They struck up a deal with a few generals who felt the same way, and the Undertow was formed from there.”

Wiz kid, for his part, ignored Michael’s briefing on the Undertow. Rather, his attention was focused on something else entirely, though equally important. 

“ And the foot soldiers?”

“ High school drop outs that couldn’t cut it in the real thing. The Undertow isn’t exactly on the same level as Hydra, but dangerous enough.”

“ So how do you know so much about the Undertow?” Mirage asked, “ Somehow, I don’t think Project Earth’s and the Undertow’s agenda are all that compatible.” 

“Too right luv. The Undertow’s taken a few stabs at the Project, so we decided to push back. Which brings me to why I’m here. I know where the Undertow is going to strike next. Promise to leave the Project alone, and I’ll tell you.”

“ The Undertow are launching an attack in Nicaragua, aren’t they?” Wiz Kid said, matter of factly.

“ How did you…”

“ During this time that we have been talking, I hacked into Project Earth’s computers thru their website, and downloaded all your information on the Undertow, including the Undertow’s G.P.P devices. And, the coordinates directly above your head were large help.”

Michael looked up, and sure enough, were the coordinates for the Undertow’s next attack, clear as day. North 1345234.69 and West 578010.414. 

“ How the bloody hell…”

Underneath her mask, Mirage smiled. One of her mutant powers was to be able to project illusions based on information in another person’s mind. She wasn’t about to tell Michael that, though. She created a psychic arrow, and pointed it at him, “ Thanks for your help. As a way of saying thank you, Project Earth is moved to the bottom of our shit list.”

Mirage let the arrow fly, and before Michael had even hit the ground, she turned towards her team, “ Let’s get the hell out of here and save our friends.”

 

As Namorita Prentiss, known as ‘Nita to her friends and Kymaera to her enemies, rejoined the waking world, she felt a knot forming in her stomach. She didn’t need to be fully awake to know exactly where she was. She could tell from the scent of burned fish in the air, the taste of the Undertow’s teleportation system her mouth. These things were burned into her memory forever. She tried to move her webbed hand to massage her head, and found, to no one’s surprise, that it was restrained.

“ Welcome home.” A voice said. It sounds more like someone gargling molten rocks than an actual human being. 

“ Protocol.” She hissed as her vision cleared. Protocol was a good nine feet tall, with light brown skin and white spikes that completely covered his fore arms and lower legs. His shoulders were as broad as three men standing together and his muscles were larger than most people’s head. He was standing directly in front of her, with that infuriatingly smug smile he had plastered on his face. Behind him what looked like scientists were scurrying about, doing whatever it is scientists do and standing next to him was General Obsidian, Protocol’s yes man and fall guy. 

“ How are we feeling, Ms. Prentiss?” 

Kymaera ignored him and quickly assessed her situation. She was alone in what looked like a lab. She was restrained to a metal chair, with an odd helmet and electrodes attached to her head. For a long moment, Kymaera was confused. Why wasn’t she in surgery? She couldn’t feel an implant in herself, and the Undertow’s normal M.O. was to implant one in any captured superhuman.

“ Feeling well?” He continued, “You’re lucky your body absorbs water as quickly as it does. Most people don’t recover from dehydration as fast as you and your cousin.”

“ Go to hell.” She growled, “ Where am I? Why did you kidnap me? Where are the others!”

“ My, my, so many questions. I’ll see what I can do to answer them.” Protocol replied in a business like manner.

“ The Undertow has suffered reverses of late. After the events of September 11th, the few allies we had in Washington decided to…distance themselves from us. They had already begun to do so when the new president was elected…”

“ Chosen.” Kymaera interrupted.

“ Excuse me?”

“ The current president was chosen, not elected.”

Protocol rolled his eyes, “ I see your time among us hasn’t disabused you of your liberal leanings. Pity. At any rate, the Undertow currently suffers from a lack of capital.”

“ And you intend to brainwash me and steal the money my cousin and I earned from selling Oracle Inc.” Kymaera finished. “ But why attack Force Works? Why not just ambush me while I’m alone?”

“ Because Force Works possesses resources I hoped to capture, as well. Sadly, I was not able to do so, and I was forced to kill them.” Protocol sighed.

“ You don’t expect me to believe that, do you?” 

“ I expect you to believe your own eyes.” Protocol pointed towards the side, and Kymaera tilted her head so that she could see what he was pointing to. It was a monitor, and on it was an aerial view of the airfield that Force Works had fought the Undertow, obscured in a yellowish gas. Kymaera’s keen eyes could make out the bodies of her teammates, laying prone on the ground. Mirage, Wiz Kid, Tarene, everyone. But what made the image seem real to Kymaera was the fact that there were Undertow soldiers among the dead.

“ How…”

“ Mustard gas canisters, left over from World War Two. Crude, but effective.” He explained, “ Shame we had to sacrifice so many soldiers, but that’s how it works sometimes.” 

“ But…Speedball and Wolfsbane…” Kymaera asked, unable to take her eyes away from the screen. 

“ Speedball is in a special cell now. We will most likely kill him; he is no use to us. As for Wolfsbane…” 

The screen that had moments before shown the dead bodies of Force Works was replaced by an image of Wolfsbane. However, it didn’t show the vibrant, passionate young Scots woman ‘Nita had befriended. Rather, Rahne was curled up in a fetal position in her human form, softly weeping. Her yellow and blue costume was in tatters, and Kymaera could make out a small amount of blood on the young woman’s thighs.

“ You…” The words died her in her throat and she started to cry for her friend. 

“ Us. Wolfsbane, we will ransom back to her mother. I simply wished to have something to properly motivate the good doctor.” Protocol smiled, this time revealing his many, many edged teeth.

When Kymaera saw that smile, all her grief and pity fled her. It was replaced by an emotion very familiar to a sub mariner. Rage.

“ I swear, as Neptune as my witness, that I will kill you for what you have done.” Kymaera said calmly.

“ Unlikely. The machine you are hooked up will completely rewrite your personality and make you a willing servant of the Undertow. When you are released from that machine, lovingly called the Rewirer, you won’t be a member of the Soldiers of Misfortune, you will be their leader.”

Protocol signaled for the Rewirer to be activated. Kymaera gritted her teeth, as the Rewirer went to work. It felt as though a thousand burning needles were being forced into her brain while her skin was doused was aflame while her blood felt as though it was replaced with acid.

“ After all that time we spent together, you never learned an important fact about me.” Kymaera snarled as beads of sweat dripped down her face.

“ Oh? What’s that?”

“ I …will not… be broken.”

Protocol scowled at that. “Unlikely.”

Protocol left the room, leaving the Rewirer to do it’s work, and made his way back towards his command center.

“ Was it really necessary to lie to her like that, sir?”

Protocol looked down and saw General Obsidian. He had forgotten all about him.

“ After all, those lies she saw will only strengthen her will to resist.”

“ I know, General and that is exactly what I want. I want her at her strongest, because once she is broken, she will be ours forever. Break your enemy at their strongest point, and then victory will be yours. There is only one way to leave the Undertow.” He said, eying the General.

“ Understood, sir. Anything else?” He said nervously 

“ Yes, I must say I’m rather disappointed with this operation. The intent was to capture more than three members of Force Works, and more important members than Speedball. Had we captured Nova or X-Treme, we would have their knowledge of alien technology. Had we captured Wiz Kid, we could have bent his genius to our cause. Instead, all we really have to show for our work is Kymaera and Wolfsbane.” Protocol then eyed the General, “ Not your finest work.”

“I…umm… I understand, sir, but…but we had to launch when we did. All things considered, something is better than nothing. And we can always try again using Kymaera as bait.” He stammered.

“ I suppose,” Protocol sighed, “ In the meantime, see to ransoming Miss Sinclair back to her mother. She has close contacts in several X teams, including X-Force. The sooner she is out of our hair, the better.”

“ Yes, sir.” 

 

Hector Caballereo isn’t a superstitious man by any means. That was most likely because belief in the supernatural meant that he had to believe, at least to some degree, in an afterlife. And, considering the fact that he’s currently loading drugs into an old barge, well, let’s just say that belief in an afterlife would hurt his job performance. 

And that wouldn’t help his family one bit. Mr. Caballereo despised drug dealers with all his heart and he hates what he is doing. But his mother is old, and his beloved wife of twenty years has breast cancer. The only other way to even hope to pay for her treatments is for his two daughters to go into the world’s oldest profession, and he would die before he allowed that to happen. Still, as he went about his job, preparing opium to be transported to America, he couldn’t help but feel as though he was being watched.

And he is being watched. But not by spirits, but by six super humans loaded in one of the most advanced airplanes in the world, known as the Stealth Wing. Hovering at twelve thousand feet above Mr. Caballereo, the members wait. 

“ Well, it’s a drug deal.” X-Treme said. The Stealth Wing had high definition cameras and directional mikes located on every possible angle. X-Treme hoped to break the tension in the air, “ But why should the Undertow care?”

“ The Undertow are basically the Republican party with guns,” Nova explained, “ Well, more guns. I guess they just want to take a stab at the operation below.”

“ Wish we could…” Arsenal muttered.

“ But we can’t. The Undertow are coming, and this is our only chance to find our friends before they’re brainwashed and turned against us. They see us there, they’ll cut bait and run” Mirage explained, “ You have to learn how to wait sometimes in this business.”

“ How are you so sure the Undertow are coming?” Nova asked.

“ I just am.” Mirage replied. She felt it best not to explain that she could sense death approaching.

While his teammates made idle chatter, Wiz Kid prepared, seated in a chair specifically equipped for him. Cables reached out of his back pack and were plugged into specially designed ports that allowed him, thru the cybernetic link that allowed him to control his high tech back pack, enabling him to amplify the Stealth Wings scanners. If anything abnormal happened in this South America country, he would know about it. Just as a precaution, he scanned all radio signals within a fifty-mile radius, in case the coordinates were misremembered. 

For the normal human mind, organizing, analyzing and processing such information would be impossible. But Wiz Kid’s brain was very abnormal. He could process information faster than the most powerful super computer, and could actually have two different trains of thought at once. Wiz Kid wondered, for a brief moment, how his friends would react to the fact that his computer like mind wasn’t a part of his original mutation. He put that thought out of his mind as his scanners acted up.

“ We got company.” X-Treme pointed towards the monitor that was trained on the docks below. Men, wearing uniforms recognizable as those of the Undertow, had teleported behind the docks, and began advancing on the drug runners. Most of the people who were loading the boats were unarmed, and were cut down with ease. The few guards that had been posted were no match for the Undertow soldiers.

“ Wiz Kid?”

“ I’m tracing them now. Give me a few minutes.”

“ Hell,” Mirage muttered, “ I don’t think they’ll last that long.”

“ Shouldn’t we save them?” Tarene asked as she watched the massacre. In a way she couldn’t explain, she felt drawn to the battle below. It somehow sang to her, calling her forth. 

“ If we go down there and reveal ourselves, we’ll lose whatever chance we have of saving our teammates.” Mirage said, “ So, we stay here.”

“ But people are dying down there!”

“ I know Tarene, but they made their choice to live their lives supplying poison to millions. They made their choice, and I made ours.” 

“ We’re heroes, so we should save everyone, no matter the personal cost! Rahne, Robbie and Nita knew that!” Tarene turned and walked towards the drop hatch, “ And so do I!”

She was ready to tear the hatch open if they wouldn’t let her out, but before she could get to the hatch, she was struck down with a psychic arrow.

“ Well, at least one of us will have clear conscious.” Dani muttered, “ Wiz Kid, how is it coming with those scans?”

“ I’ve just finished tracing them back to their base.” He replied, “ We’re good to go.”

“ Good. Okay force Works, let’s get down there and…”

“ Don’t bother going down there.” 

“ What? Why not?”

“ Because, according to my scanners, everyone down there is dead.”

“ Oh.”

“ Let’s make sure they’re the last victims of the Undertow.” X-Treme said as Wiz Kid programmed the coordinates for the Undertow’s base into the flight computer. They all nodded in silent agreement.

“ Besides, I’m sure they deserved what they got.” Nova muttered under his breath.

 

“ You guys are gonna be sorry about this! I’m ‘bout ready to bust out of here any minute!” Speedball shouted, “ and then the Masked Marvel’s gonna lay the smack down on your candy @$$s!”

No one replied, mainly because Speedball was in a vat of filled with a non hardening glue up to his chest. To make matters worse, Speedball strapped immobile to a chair in the center of the vat. It was a very crude cell, but against someone who needed movement to use his powers, it was very effective.

Okay, this is not good Speedball thought to himself, This goop just absorbs my kinetic blasts. So, I can’t bounce, and my blasts are useless. How am I going to get out of here?

Speedball thought long and hard on that subject. Then, he remembered something Dani had asked him. She had asked if he could charge objects with kinetic energy. When he asked why, she explained that an X-Man she knew could, and she just figured that someone who controlled kinetic energy like him could do so as well. Speedball never gave the comment much though, until now. He had always been able to absorb kinetic energy, but what else could he do? Well, no time like the present to find out.

“ Kinetic energy, I choose you!” Speedball declared as he reached out with his powers, hoping he knew what he was doing. He squinted his eyes at the goop and concentrated for several minutes, “ Any time now!”

Nothing. The vat was completely inert. 

“ Well, that was a waste of time.” He muttered, “ At least no one saw me looking like I was about to pass a kidney stone.”

Speedball, in his disappointment, failed to notice a fly above him that had lived out 99.99 of its life, and was preparing for death.

 

Directly over the Undertow’s formerly secret base on the Pacific Ocean. 

“ We’re in sight.” Arsenal said.

“ I’m surprised.” Nova said as he saw the island that served as the Undertow’s base. The island was pure bedrock and there was no trees on the island, and the island was covered with hangars, buildings and barracks, “ According to ‘Nita, most of the Undertow’s bases were under the ocean.”

“ They were forced to abandon them all when ‘Nita was freed.” Wiz Kid explained, “ They were afraid of what would happen if Namor or his army found them.”

“ How do you know that?”

“ Because I just hacked into the Undertow’s computer. I’ve downloaded everything, including a few encrypted files. They contain something rather disturbing, I might add. Apparently, the Undertow used our hot line against us. When they phoned it tips, and when we acted on them, the Undertow was on the scene with scanners…”

“ So they knew our weaknesses.” Mirage finished, “ I should have seen that one coming. When this is all over, we’ll have to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Taki, I want you to create a virus that will burn their hard drive, eat their soft ware, and gives the Undertow a nasty social disease. Can you do that?”

“ Does E equal MC squared?”

Mirage turned towards her team. Tarene had recovered by now, and was silently pouting, “ Alright team, here’s how we’re going to do this. Taki is going to create a virus with a delayed effect. We’re going to sneak it, get our teammates out, and then start smashing things from the inside. Got it?”

“ Screw that, Mirage” Nova said, “ I say we do a full frontal assault. That’ll force the Undertow to show their hand now. Sneaking around will just waste time.”

“ Guys…”

“ That may how you did things in the Warriors, but that won’t work here.”

“Guys…”

“ The original Warriors beat Sphinx, Terrax and Supernova, all baddies who gave the Avengers trouble. Our record speaks for itself.” Nova snapped, “ Hell, we did just fine against your buddies in X-Force, too!”

“ Guys!”

“ Different situation, different response!”

X-Treme, rather than try to get their attention with words, jerked the control stick to the right. Once he was sure he had their attention from the looks of hatred on their face, he explained why he did what he did.

“ A huge explosion ripped thru the Undertow’s base. Sneaking in isn’t an option.”

Mirage looked at the monitor, and saw what X-Treme was referring too. The bedrock was cracked and seeping thru it were multi colored bubbles.

“ Speedball did that?”

“ Who else?” X-Treme confirmed. “ According to our scanners, there was a huge explosion of kinetic energy around him. He’s still alive, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“ Okay, now plan. Wiz Kid, get on the horn. Let everyone who matters know where the Undertow is. The coast guard, Navy, Shield, everyone. I doubt the Undertow is willing to go to the mat with real law enforcement personal.”

“ Done. I also downloaded the schematics of the Undertow’s base, and can show X-Treme where they are holding Wolfsbane. Kymaera’s location, though, isn’t in the files.”

“ Not a problem. Nova, you’re flying X-Treme and I down. X-Treme, once we’re on the ground, I want you to find the others. The rest of us will be fighting a holding action. Any questions? No? Good.”

Mirage opened the drop hatch, “ Well, let’s go to work!”

 

“ Oh man…two acts of mass destruction in one day. Slap me in a leather fetish gear, mark me with an X and sign me up for a real mutant team!” Speedball said as he stumbled out of the rubble that used to be his cell. The hall was covered with hanging tile, exposed wiring and upheaved flooring.

“ Get him! Get Superball!” 

Speedball looked down the hall, and saw members of the Undertow whom escaped the blast advancing on him

“ The name’s Speedball, the masked Marvel!” Speedball said as he launched himself as them, “ Though why they called me the masked marvel when I have no mask, is simply beyond me.”

 

Protocol watched the events unfold monitors thru gritted teeth. He was undone. Undone by children. All his ideals, his aspirations for the world, gone. Everyone knew where the Undertow was now, and he had no hope of saving his precious organization now. Still, these children would not inherit the world. 

“ If I am to fall, then I will take my enemies with me.” He said defiantly. He typed several quick commands into his command consul

“ Project Five Chinamen readied. Command authorization code?” A computerized voice asked.

“ Authorization Gamma, Gamma Omega Five. Authority Protocol.” He answered. 

“ Project Activated.”

Protocol then walked over to a secret compartment. Typing in a command code on what otherwise looked like a mirror, the mirror opened to reveal a large bottle of scotch. Not bothering with a glass, Protocol took a large swig and sat down in his large command chair. It was done. Now all that was left for him to do was wait for the end.

 

“ Breaker comin’ up!” Nova warned. A split second later, he flew over the Undertow troops that had amassed on the tarmac against Force Works at mach one, basically breaking the sound barrier over their heads. That punishing attack was followed up by a flurry of psychic arrows, optic blasts, energy bolts and lightning that demolished the first wave of troops.

“ Keep up the pressure!” Dani shouted.

Wiz Kid smiled as he saw a dozen mandroid units approaching the battlefield. Mandroids were massive armored battle suits, standing twenty feet tall, with shoulder less helmets. At the end of both arms were large plasma cannons. They had enough firepower to level a small country, and that was exactly why Wiz Kid was happy to see them.

“ Time for reinforcements.” He smirked. He formed boot jets around his feet, and flew at them. He avoided their fire with ease, and he landed on the head of one of the units. Wiz Kid quickly unleashed a small magnetic pulse from his backpack at the other eleven Mandroid units. It didn’t cripple them, but forced them to shut down for several minutes until they could reboot. But that didn’t matter; all he really needed was a few seconds. When he landed on the first mandroid, microfilaments came out for his backpack and drilled into the Mandroid’s helmet, merging with it and rewriting the software. After about twenty seconds, Wiz Kid had commandeered the Mandroid unit for his own use. He sent a quick electric pulse thru the mandroid, knocking the pilot out. 

“ Let’s see how you handle, eh?” Wiz Kid turned the Mandroid on his fellows, programming the other members of its unit. While that Mandroid went to work on that, Wiz Kid quickly commandeered two more mandroid units. 

“ Well, that was easy.” Wiz Kid commented, as he looked down on the Mandroid unit he had defeated single handily. Standing proud on one mandroid, and with two others flanking, Wiz Kid almost forgot that there was still a battle raging. 

He snapped back to reality when he saw the Soldiers of Misfortune emerge onto the battlefield. He created a special neural weapon from his backpack, created by the Undertow in case any soldiers managed to free themselves and he had discovered while hacking their files, and picked of Dark and Wrong before he was noticed by the other soldiers of Misfortune, who in turn attacked him and his puppets. 

Don’t give them a second to breath! Arsenal reminded himself as he waded into the legion of Undertow soldiers in front of him. Rather than flying above them and strafing them, he had chosen to use his steel form and meet them head on. His metal wings also made great offense tools, giving him a long reach and also allowing him to simply sweep foes aside. But as the battle progressed, Arsenal could almost feel his foes getting stronger. He hoped he was wrong, because he knew that Force Works couldn’t keep this pace up much longer.

 

“ This is commander Grange! I’ve done a security sweep of the lower levels. The prisoners are in their cells and Force Works hasn’t penetrated down here yet.”

“ Understood, Grange. Get your team up here so we can keep it that way. This’ll be our last scrap, so let’s make it good!”

“ You got it!”

X-Treme put Commander Grange’s radio down on his body and started to head towards where he had been informed the cells were. So far, he has having an easy time. He had only been forced to take down about a half dozen men, besides Grange’s team. X-Treme didn’t get ten feet before Commander Grange and his security team began to awaken. 

Strange, they should have been out for at least five minutes He thought as he removed several throwing blades from his belt, and it’s only been two minutes and ten seconds.

Without looking back, he threw one at each member of the security team, nicking them and drawing the slightest amount of blood.

“ Burn!”

X-Treme quickly made his way towards the area he had been informed that Wolfsbane was being held. Before he could decide on where to kick the door on or not, a body flew out. X-Treme easily sidestepped the man. Surprisingly, the man was only stunned by the impact.

“ Your thug toss needs works.” X-Treme commented as he backhanded the soldier into unconsciousness. 

“ I do jus’ fine, thank ye.” Wolfsbane replied, “ What kept ye?”

“ Traffic was a dream.”

Wolfsbane chuckled a little bit. “ Nightmare. Traffic was a nightmare.”

Before they could say anything else, the wall behind them exploded with incredible force, knocking them to the ground. Before either hero could react, they were lifted off the ground and grabbed tightly grabbed. 

“ Oh, thank Neptune you’re alright!”

X-Treme was about to stab the offender squeezing the life from him before he realized who it was “ Nita?” He winced.

“ I thought you were dead!” She said as she hugged her friends.

“ Nita…I love ye tae…but…air is becoming an issue!” Wolfsbane rasped.

“ Sorry.” Nita released her friends, and they gasped for air. “ Where are the others?”

“ They’re topside, dealing with the Undertow. Dani sent me to find you and the others.”

Nita turned towards Rahne, “ Are you okay? Did the Undertow…hurt you?” The concern was evident in her voice.

“ They jus’ locked me in a cell an’ forgot aboot me.” Rahne replied, “ Why?”

“ Doesn’t matter. Look, you two get back to the others and help them out. I’m sure Speedball can take care of himself. I’m going to find Protocol and deal with him myself.”

“ Are you sure?”

“ I know the Undertow better than anyone. You two will just slow me down.” Kymaera didn’t wait for any counter arguments. She simply flew off, heading farther into the depths of the complex. 

“ Roosha, that makes me feel special.” X-Treme commented. Behind him, the soldier he had downed was getting to his feet. X-Treme backhanded him with enough force to break his jaw and send him into a coma for three weeks, but the man was simply knocked senseless. X-Treme noted this, and ‘flashed’ the man with his powers.

“Talons of T’Thyees’sha!” He exclaimed, “ This man is channeling an incredible amount of bio energy!”

“ Meaning what?”

“ Meaning it’s making him one touch bastjak!” He replied as he struck the man down again. X-Treme picked up Wolfsbane in his arms and began running back the way he came.

“ I ken run, ye know!” Rahne protested.

“ Not as fast as I can carry you. We need to get to open ground if we want to see the next solar rotation.”

“ Wait! What about ‘Nita?”

“ She’ll have to fend for herself.” X-Treme replied.

 

“ Things don’t look so good for you, do they children?” Protocol asked as he watched Force Works battle his forces. Force Works, despite their power, was being forced back, giving ground. A powerful force field was surrounding the island now, making retreat impossible, and kept any help from arriving. Several Navy ships and the Shield helicarrier were just outside the island, futilely trying to penetrate the force field. They would get thru in time, but not soon enough to save Force Works. 

“ You will join me in the depths of Hades.” Protocol declared. He was on his fourth bottle of scotch now, but given his incredible body weight, he barely had a slight buzz. Suddenly, a blue blur smashed thru the far wall and slammed into him with incredible force. Protocol heard a sickening snap, and knew he was paralyzed before he even hit the ground. He opened his eyes, expecting to see Nova standing over him. He was somewhat surprised to see…

“ Miss Prentiss, I see Speedball freed all his teammates with his little stunt.”

“ Where is it!” She demanded.

“ Where is what?”

“ The kill switch, you smug bastard! You used to gloat to me and the other Soldiers of Misfortune about how you could shut us and the rest of the Undertow with the touch of a button!” 

Behind her, a soldier attempted to tackle her. Without think, she slapped the man away and into a wall with such force that every bone in his body should have been broken and killed him instantly. Kymaera normally didn’t use such force against those weaker than her, but the Undertow was different. The acts they forced her to commit scarred her soul, and she had no place for mercy in her heart for any member. Regardless, the man was simply knocked out, not killed.

“ How did he survive that blow?” She asked, out of morbid curiosity.

“ Tell me, Miss Prentiss, have you ever heard of the Collective Man?”

 

Speedball smashed thru the last door that lead to the surface and quickly surveyed the situation. As impossible as it seemed, the Undertow was winning. Force Works, and the three mandroid units were being forced back. About twenty feet away from the rest of the team, Tarene was fighting off eight Ironmongers with a passion. She seemed to be holding her own but how long she could do so was uncertain.

Something tells me we’ll need our big gun if we’re going to make it thru this hoe down Speedball thought as he made his way towards his teammate. What he could do to help her, he wasn’t sure, but he knew he had to try.

“ Tarene, I got yer…”

-Wham!-

Speedball didn’t even get a chance to finish his sentence. Tarene, consumed in a rage, struck Speedball with her full force, sending him flying.

“ Wahhhh! Jane! Stop this crazy thing!” He shouted as he flew over two hundred miles per hour away from Tarene. 

“ Speedball!” Tarene stopped fight and froze the moment she realized what she had done. Unfortunately for her, this gave the men in the Ironmonger suits a moment to regroup, and they used it to smash Tarene with their repulsar blasts. 

Speedball, didn’t do much better. He smashed thru the doors of another hangar, one clearly marked to indicate it contained Ammunition and Jet Fuel.

 

Spirits help me! Mirage prayed as she was suddenly overwhelmed by the Undertow. Her psychic arrows had no effect on her foes now, and they quickly rushed her, hoping to crush her with their numbers.

Get off her you mutts! She heard someone yell. The mass of bodies crushing her quickly disappeared. Arsenal and Nova were digging her out, throwing the Undertow soldiers away and thru the air like rag dolls.

“ We need to get you to higher ground.” Nova said. Mirage didn’t argue with that. Nova took her hand and flew her up to the top of the Mandroid unit Wiz Kid had hijacked. Wolfsbane and X-Treme were up there as well, protecting Wiz Kid. 

“ Taki, what the hell is going on here? These guys won’t stay down and are getting stronger by the minute!” 

“ I don’t know how, but these guys are somehow channeling the life force of half of North America!” Taki explained. He created a plasma rifle with his backpack and tossed it to Mirage.

“ WHAT! Can you do anything to stop it?”

“ I…don’t think so. This may be our last fight.”

“ I’ve heard that before.” Mirage said as she blasted two Undertow soldiers back. “ Do you at least have any suggestions?”

“ Yes. Prepare to go down like Custer.” Wiz Kid smiled. 

“ If we live, Taki, I’m going to kill you for that comment!” 

 

“ The Collective Man was a brain washed superhero who protected China. He possessed the ability to channel the life force of an entire nation thru his body.” Protocol explained to Kymaera, “Potentially, he possessed the ability to channel the life force of millions. As such, the Undertow took an interest in him. We made a deal with China. In exchange for a device that would increase the quality of life for everyone in China, they would give us a blood sample.”

“ And you managed to duplicate his powers somehow.” Kymaera finished.

“ Not exactly. We haven’t been able to duplicate the element that allowed him to safely channel such energy. Within several hours, every member of the Undertow present here will explode with enough force to level several city blocks.”

“ Father Neptune…Tell me how to stop it!”

Protocol smiled. He could just ignore her, but a better revenge came to mind. His grudge was never with Force Works directly; rather it was with Kymaera, who had cost him so much. “ The third screen from the left. The one that is not on. Smash it, and you will see a large green button.”

Kymaera hesitated, unsure of what to do.

“ Miss Prentiss, do as I say. What do you have to lose?”

He had her there. She smashed the screen, and sure enough, the button was where Protocol had said it would be.

“ And this will shut down the Undertow?”

“ No.”

“ But you said…”

“ It will kill every member of the Undertow. Including the Soldiers of Misfortune.”

“ WHAT!”

“ You heard me. What, did you think I would make this easy for you?” Protocol sneered.

“ You monster…”

“ That, my dear, is in the eye of the beholder. What are you waiting for? Save your friends…”

“ You mean choose between them. Your Soldiers of Misfortune are my friends as well.”

“ Whatever your choice, I suggest you chose quickly. Force Works won’t hold out much longer.”

Kymaera looked at the green button intently. As ashamed as she was to admit it, the idea of killing the Undertow didn’t bother her one bit. She was an Atlantean, and when she ruled Atlantis during Namor’s absence, she oversaw the execution of spies who tried to take advantage of Atlantis’ weakness. Every member of the Undertow was a willing participant and as far as Kymaera was concerned, got what they deserved. But the Soldiers of Misfortune were different. They were innocent pawns, pawns she knew very, very well.

“ Times is running out, Miss Prentiss.”

 

“ Hell, I’m out!” Mirage shouted as she tossed plasma rifle she had been using only moments before aside. She concentrated, and created her trademark psychic arrows. Only this time, they were far more powerful than her normal arrows. She unleashed a barrage of them from her vantage point on the mandroid unit at the Undertow, with little effect. The Undertow soldiers were swarming it like ants now, and Dani knew they were only moments from being overwhelmed.

“ Mirage, I’m getting a reading a huge build up of kinetic energy in that hangar over there!” Wiz Kid pointed towards the hangar Speedball had been blasted into. It was deformed, with a dozen dents and more forming by the minute, “ What should we do?”

Mirage didn’t reply. That was because she saw death approaching. It came at them with incredible strength and overwhelming power. The last thought that went thru Dani’s mind as the hangar exploded and her world turned to white was that she hadn’t been dedicated enough to being the leader of Force Works, and they had paid the final price for her failure.

Mirage, along with Wiz Kid, Wolfsbane and X-Treme, was blown off the mandroid and thrown thru the air. Mirage came smashing down on the tarmac and skidded a good ten feet before she stopped, flickering it and out of consciousness the entire time. Once she stopped, and it took her a full minute to realize she wasn’t dead. With an incredible amount of will power, she pushed herself over, her body complaining the entire time. Lying on her back, she then activated her comm. unit.

“ Report…Anyone…report…” She rasped. There was no response, but Mirage was undeterred. 

“ Mirage… 290. Status?” She said into the comm. unit. Everything any member of Force Works said over their comms was instantly recorded by computers in the Stealth Wing and what Mirage had done was activate her private code for remote use of the Stealth Wing scanners.

“ All Force Works life signs are nominal. Opposition forces are negative except one.” It reported. That last piece of information really didn’t register with Dani. She started to give into the temptation to pass out; so very relieved now that she knew her team was somehow alright. The overwhelming pain was a big factor in that decision as well.

“ You…you killed us all…” A voice said immediately followed by the hammer of a gun clicking.

THAT snapped Dani back to reality. She opened her eyes to see the form of General Obsidian standing about five feet away from her, with a .45 magnum aimed at her head.

“ You…have…destroyed us, but at least…you won’t live to tell about it.” He said weakly. Though he didn’t much show it, he was on the verge of death. The only thing that saved him was the fact that he secretly had his implant slightly modified. But that only delayed his death by minutes.

Dani refused to close her eyes as she sensed death approaching, yet again.

“ Stop!” A familiar voice yelled. Dani craned her neck to the right, despite the massive pain the act caused. She saw her friend Rahne with a gun in her handed, trained on the General.

“ Stop or I’ll shoot!”

Spirits Dani thought. She was screwed. Rahne couldn’t pull this bluff in a million years, and she couldn’t muster the will to create an arrow.

“ You…don’t honestly…expect me to believe you will shoot me, do you? I’ve read your file, and you’re no killer.”

“ What ye believe is yuir business.” Rahne replied, her hand shaking ever so slightly, “ But please drop the gun.”

“ You’ll have to shoot me.” 

-Blam!-

-Blam!-

Dani clenched her eyes closed despite herself. When she opened them, she was surprised to discover that she still could and by what she saw. The gun the General had been holding was laying on the ground away from him, and he was clenching his wrist, attempting to stem the bleeding from a bullet hole.

“ I…won’t…fall…” He rasped as he attempted to pull a knife from his belt.

“ wwwaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!” 

General Obsidian didn’t have time to even look up before he was smashed under the falling form of Speedball. His body had just enough give so that Speedball didn’t bounce away. 

Speedball, covered in smoke and ash, stood up, and brushed himself off. “ So, what’s new with you guys?”

Wolfsbane crunched the gun she had used against the General into a ball and dropped it, “ Hateful thing.” She muttered. “ I’m nae sure what happened, Robby.”

Wolfsbane knelt down next to her old friend. “ Lay still, Dani. I need t’ check ye oot.”

“ Cripes, Rahne, where…. did you learn to shoot like that? Rictor? Cable?”

“ Robby, please turn away.” She said as she started to rip Dani’s costume open to examine her chest. “ Mummy taught me.”

“ Moira?! She taught you how to handle a gun?”

“ Aye. I dinnae want tae, but mummy said that it was something every lady o’ Kinross shid know.” Rahne explained she felt Dani’s ribs.

“ Oww! Watch it!”

“ Well, ye have several broken ribs.” 

“ I could have told you that.”

“I’m jus’ doin’ what me mum taught me. Yuir lucky yuir costume takes as much punishment as it does.”

“ Yeah… lucky me.” Mirage winced, “ Any idea what happened?”

“ I killed them.”

The three Force Works members turned as one and saw Kymaera emerging from the lower levels of the base, weeping profusely, “ I killed them all…”

 

Shield Helicarrier, Medical Bay

“ …And apparently, her battle with Protocol activated some auto destruct sequence. It killed everyone, including Protocol.” Mirage finished. She was lying down in the medical wing of the Shield Helicarrier, being patched up while being debriefed by Dugan Dum Dum, one of the highest-ranking members of Shield present.

“ Poor kid.” Dugan said as he lit up a stogie, “ Wonder how she’s takin’ it.”

“ We’re not kids, Dum Dum. In the eyes of the law, every member of Force Works is legally responsible enough to commit murder. Now, I don’t suppose you can tell me what exactly Shield managed to get from the Undertow?”

“ A whole lot of squat. When we busted the force field the Undertow had around their base, it caused feedback that fried everythin’ damn thing. It’ll take our tech boys twenty years jus’ ta kind out what kinda operating system they had. Hope ya appreciate it.”

“ We do. So where’s Forge and X-Force?”

“ Umm, busy.” He stated.

(See recent issues of X-Force and Excalibur to see what Dum Dum is talking about)

“ Well, we’ll get out of your hair in a little.” Dani said as she sat up.

“ Ms. Moonstar, please, lay down.” One medical technician implored.

“ I’m fine. Don’t fret over me.” She said, “ Check the others of you need to keep busy.”

“ Ms. Moonstar…”

“ You heard the lady,” Dum Dum interrupted, “ She’s fine. Go see to her teammates.”

The two lab technicians quickly left, afraid of angering their superior.

“ Thanks. I thought I was being too subtle.”

“ Ta others, maybe. But I’ve been in the game long enough ta know when someone wants to talk to me in private. What can I do for ya?”

“ Nothing, really. I heard about what happened to Fury.”

“ So? What of it?” Dum Dum asked, already uncomfortable with the subject. Nick Fury, in a series of events that no one could have foreseen, was turned against Shield and everything it stood for.

“ Fury personally recruited me into Shield. He gave me a purpose after I was kicked out of Asgard, so I owe him alot.” Mirage reached into her belt and pulled out what looked like an average calling card; “ I know he’s made enough enemies on both sides of the fence that would like nothing more than to see him dead.”

“ So?”

Mirage handed him the card, “ So if you ever need some…outside help dealing with Fury, just call us. This calling card is untraceable, and connects directly to our personal voice mail.”

“ Thanks, Moonstar. I’ll consider that.” He said as he tucked the card into his belt. 

 

Shield Helicarrier, Morgue 

Namorita Prentiss, as a Submariner, is normally immune to the effects of lower temperatures. She frolicked under the polar ice caps as a child with no ill effects whatsoever. But now, the cold of the morgue cut thru her like a knife. Laid out in front of her on metal gurneys were seven dead bodies of her family members. A family forged of mutual enslavement, loss and pain. And for the second time in her life, she was an orphan. Tears streamed down her face as she thought about what she had done. She heard someone quietly approaching.

“ I told you Richie, I want to be alone now.” She chocked out.

“ I’m nae Richie.”

Nita turned around, “ Rahne please, just leave me be…”

“ Ye did them a kindness.” Rahne said.

“ How would you know!” She snapped, “ I took away any chance they had of returning to their family!”

“ I know because I once spent time as a slave,” Rahne explained, “ Fer an entire week, I was forced tae obey the every whim of my ‘masters’. I still remember how that one week twisted me, and filled me with hatred. Ye were fortunate tae escape. But the fact that ye did isnae yuir fault.”

(Rahne was turned into a slave during X-Tincton Agenda)

“ You don’t know what I’m responsible for!” Nita taunted, despite herself. Her guilt was so much that she now wanted someone, anyone to hate her for what she was forced to do. 

Rahne gently took Nita’s hands in her own, “ I know that the Undertow wasnae killed because of yuir fight wit’ Protocol, if that’s what ye mean.”

Nita looked at Rahne, shocked. She had seen thru her lie, and would expose her for the coward that she was. Nita was torn about what to do next. Should she run, beg Rahne to keep the secret, not give a damn about what happened next, what? 

Rahne, however, had no such questions about what to do, “ I know ye did what ye had tae. Ye had no choice. Yuir friends are in a better place now, ye know that as well as I do.”

“ How can you be so sure?” She choked

“ Because I know ye. I know, with all my heart, ye wouldnae have pressed that button if ye dinnae believe that ye were helping them.”

Nita wanted to tell Rahne that she was wrong, that she was a poor judge of character, but when her mouth opened, her throat just went dry. Though it was hard for her to admit, she knew that her fellow members of the Soldiers of Misfortune could never return to their normal lives. After all, how many times had she heard them wake up in the middle of the night screaming in shame over the acts they were forced to perform? She had lost count after two hundred and twenty three.

“ They ne’er could have gone back to their old lives.”

“ I…know.”

“ Then let it out, Nita.”

And she did. Namorita let loose all the pain, and torment that she had been bottling down since Protocol had forced her to choose between her two families. Rahne comforted her as best she could as Namorita broke down crying in her arms.

 

Metro City, Workplace Hours later

Namorita started at the ceiling in her bedroom, unable to find sleep. Her actions weighed heavily on her. It wasn’t because of the death she had caused. No, she came from a warrior’s culture, which allowed for the slaying of an enemy. Namorita for a time, rejected that culture, but was forced to embrace it when she was forced to rule Atlantis in Namor’s stead. Her culture also taught her to accept the fact that actions, good or bad, cannot be undone They can only remembered as a lesson for the future. And perhaps, if only of out necessity, Namorita truly believed that now. Perhaps, it was something else. The Undertow, the Soldiers of Misfortune, were gone forever, and there was nothing she could do to change that. But there was a way she could remember them. She silently got out of bed, taking care not to awake her lover, Richard Rider. She threw on a robe, and picked up a piece of clothing she had brought with her from Shield. She then flew towards the lab.

Taki took a sip of his coffee, and looked at the items in front of him. Laid out on a table in were Force Work’s costumes. With the exception of Speedball, who wore no costume but changed into another form. He was ordered to find a way to integrate something into the costumes that would block scans. Oh, no, it wasn’t good enough that the costumes, made of unstable molecules, was fire and bullet proof, no it wasn’t good enough they all had concealed rebreathers in them, no it wasn’t good enough they had integrated comm. units that could take as much punishment as the costumes themselves, no, it had to…

Wait a minute, didn’t he volunteer for this? Taki took another sip of his coffee, remembering in fact he had. It was a challenge, and that’s what he lived for.

“ I doubt I can cook something up to block someone like Iron Man’s scanners, but I think I can make something that’ll work none the less.” He mused aloud.

“ Then it’s a good thing I got here before you started.”

Taki wheeled around, startled. He wasn’t expecting to be around at this time. He saw Namorita, wearing a somewhat revealing robe “ I wanted to talk to you about my costume.”

“ Oh, what about it?” He walked towards his worktable and sat down. Mechical hands came out of his backpack. “ It’s not much to work with, but don’t worry…”

“ You love a good challenge. I have to disappoint you, though.” Namorita tossed another costume onto the worktable. “ I want you to modify this costume. I also want you to alter it so that it retains water.”

Taki picked the costume up. It was the green and white costume Namorita had worn as a member of the Soldiers of Misfortune, “ I can…make it so that it holds water, and can add a miniature humidifier to it as well. May I ask why you intend to wear this costume?”

“ To remember.” 

 

The End

 

Next: Force Works does a little community service when Grey Gargoyle hits Metro City. Plus, more on Doug and Rahne


End file.
